Department of Electronics & Information Technology and M/s. Canbank Venture Capital Fund Ltd will Launch Electronics Development Fund (EDF) on Monday in Mumbai. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Minister for Communications & Information Technology” will formally announce the launch with handing over of the letter of commitment to the first group of Daughter Funds under EDF.

The Electronics Development Fund Policy was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, during the inauguration of Digital India Week on 1st July 2015.Government of India has appointed M/s. CANBANK Venture Capital Fund Pvt. Ltd. (CVCFL) to house Electronics Development Fund (EDF) on 04.09.2015.

Electronics Development Fund (EDF) an initiative of IT Department is formulated as a “Fund of Funds” to participate in “Daughter Funds” which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT). The target beneficiaries of the EDF will be Daughter Funds (set up to achieve the objectives of the EDF policy) registered in India and abiding by the relevant rules and regulations including the SEBI regulations on Venture Funds.

The corpus of a Daughter Fund will be determined by market requirements and the capacity of its Fund Manager to cater to the requirements of the Fund. The supported Daughter Funds will promote innovation, R&D and product development within the country in the specified fields of electronics, nano-electronics and IT. They will also support acquisition of foreign companies and technologies for products imported in India in large volume. The core focus of the Daughter Funds would be to develop domestic design capabilities. The Daughter Funds supported will create a resource pool of IP within the country in the specified fields.

EDF therefore enables creation of an ecosystem for providing risk capital to both industry and academia to undertake research and development in these technology areas. It will, in the process, enrich the intellectual property in the country and encourage more entrepreneurs towards product and technology development.

Details at http://deity.gov.in/esdm/edf

Electronics development fund to back daughter venture funds financing domestic electronics and IT innovation and IP creation. Launch of an Electronics Development Fund establishes a government sponsored Fund of Funds to channel risk capital into India registered Daughter Funds that finance companies developing electronics, nano electronics and information technology. The EDF will commit to Daughter Funds that comply with applicable regulations, including SEBI rules, and aims to promote domestic innovation, R&D, product development, intellectual property creation and, where appropriate, acquisition of foreign technologies to reduce import dependence.