Oil Minister urges PSUs to create startup fund

Union oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday urged the public sector undertakings to create startup funds on the lines of private sector in order to promote innovation and nurture new ideas in the energy sector.

“I am advising my CEO friends in PSUs that if Ratan Tata can put his private funds for startups and if Narayana Murthy can do that for new startups then why cannot you (do that),” Mr Pradhan said addressing a conference on methanol economy.

“ONGC has already offered Rs 100 crore for startups. Can we create a synergy in innovation and this kind of startup fund. This can be a win win situation for all of us. Let us create a platform for our young Indians and scientific brains,” he said.

On moving to methanol-based economy, he said, it is a ready made case of proven technology. A methanol-based economy can create a lot of employment and entrepreneurship.

On this occasion, NITI Aayog signed a Statement of Intent with the Methanol Institute of the U.S. to further work on the technology. “The raw material (for producing methanol) should be coming from the Indian market. If we could monetise the agriculture waste and bio waste in urban areas to energy then there will be two benefits - sizeable reduction of health expenditure and our economy can be multi-fold,” he said.