from the heart

US-based academic launches

For Sujatha Fernandes, coming back home to Australia has truly been a return to her roots. Apart from the pleasure of introducing her 10-month old baby daughter to the family and enjoying the holiday season with them, she has revisited her hip-hop past and received an enthusiastic response to her recently launched book, Close to the Edge: In Search of the Global Hip Hop Generation. It’s been a busy, but happy time for this talented author, academician and musician.

Sujatha’s academic and career profile is impressive, despite her modest disclaimer about her achievements. She is currently an Associated Professor of Sociology at Queens College in the City University of New York, and has written three books and dozens of articles about black popular culture, global hip-hop and social movements. Sujatha was born in Australia to Indian origin parents. She studied here in school and Uni, and on acquiring her Honours, moved to Chicago to do her PhD in 1998.

But her affair with the culture of hip-hop began right here in Sydney. “I grew up at a time when rap, breakdancing and hip-hop were increasingly popular trends, in parallel to the conventional pop and rock music cultures,” she reveals. “I was attracted to hip-hop because of its ability to showcase social issues and express people’s realities at the grassroot level”.

Sujatha was involved in Hip Hopera, a huge multimedia celebration of local hip hop culture at Casula Powerhouse in the mid-‘90s, which fittingly, served as the venue for the launch of her book.

“The magic about hip-hop is that it can unite for a specific cause as well as deliver a powerful message,” says Sujatha, who was a part of an anti-racist group in the late ‘90s, at a time when politicians like Pauline Hanson who supported the ‘white Australia’ policy were in the limelight. “Our group comprised of people of Aboriginal and Pacific Islander origins, including myself and others who got together for a common cause that affected all of us. It was great to interact with different cultures through a medium of music that could promote a common message of equal rights and antiracism,” she adds. Sujatha wrote her own raps and the group called Deadly performed at rallies, marches and the iconic event, ‘Rock against Racism’.

My students relate to discussions on subcultures, social realities and theories when reviewed through the perspective of this kind of musical expression and its icons.

Since then, Sujatha has culminated her interest in hip-hip over thirteen years and across four cities in Close to the Edge

From the heart of hip-hop in Sydney’s West to underground voices seeking to expose injustice in Cuba and Venezuela, and finally to New York, the birthplace of hiphop, it’s been a long, but eventful journey for the author.

“My book is about personal experiences and a bit of a travelogue, but it’s about the power of hip-hop and its place in the cultures of these four very different cities,” says Sujatha. “But the underlying message is the hope that hip-hop can form a global political statement through its medium, and that it can become a commentary for causes with a common voice, to defeat ignorance and smallmindedness.” prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, descended on a specially constructed helipad near the village in Itarhi block of Buxar district, about 125 km from state capital Patna, amid tight security.

Sujatha acknowledges that her family has also been a vital part of her journey of discovery into hip-hop, introducing younger sister Deepa to various rap artists in Cuba and Venezuela, enhancing her knowledge of the genre in different cultures. And in Sydney, embracing hip-hop’s social aspect of expression gave her a better understanding of her father’s desire to find a common, stable identity after having lived in India, the UK and finally Australia.

“In my youth, hip-hop helped me to connect with who I really was, as I grappled with my personal identity,” explains Sujatha.

In what might be considered as an unusual deviation from the conventional methods of teaching, Sujatha brings her knowledge of hip-hop into her Social Studies classes, much to the enlightenment of her students.

“I try to infuse modern-day symbolism with sociological concepts which may often seem dry and uninteresting. My students relate to discussions on sub-cultures, social realities and theories when reviewed through the perspective of this kind of musical expression and its icons. I prefer dialogue and understanding, rather than simply textbook teaching,” says Sujatha.

Balancing the fine line between work, motherhood and a promising future is very likely to test Sujatha, but she’s proving more than capable to take up the challenge. Now that she’s found that she’s whole.

Persad Bissessar’s ancestors migrated from Bihar to the Caribbean islands in the 19th century. She was in India to attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas or diaspora meet in Jaipur, but did not lose the opportunity to return to

The moment she arrived at Bhelupur, there was a roar of applause and cheering from the waiting crowds for the ‘pradhanmantri beti’ or ‘daughter

“She was welcomed by villagers in traditional style, with women singing folk songs and conducting rituals to mark the visit of a daughter to her village,” district Official Bharat Bhusan said.

“An emotional Kamla Persad Bissessar, her eyes welling up and voice choked, told the jubilant crowd that she was lucky to visit the land of her roots and the village of her ancestors,” said Nishant Verma, another district official.

Persad Bessessar, accompanied by a 25-member delegation, paid homage to her ancestors.

Indian education needs more flexibility: Indian American mathematician

Shortage of top quality mathematicians in India today could be due to lack of flexibility in the education system, feels prize-winning Indian American mathematician Srinivasa Varadhan.

“We do produce in India a large number of excellent engineers and doctors. But science today tends to be multi-disciplinary and perhaps our education process for the most part is not flexible enough to adapt to changing needs,” said Varadhan, who is based in New York.

The 71-year-old, who shares his first name with the late maths prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan, has done pioneering work in probability theory, helping in understanding rare events.

“During the last few years, the (Indian) government has been committing more resources to education and research, particularly in basic sciences. But it is a slow process and will take time,” he said.

The son of a science teacher from Tamil Nadu, Varadhan completed his Ph.D from the Indian Institute of Statistics in Kolkata in 1963 before moving to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in New York University. He is now a professor there.

In 2007, Varadhan won the Abel Prize, which is considered the Nobel Prize for mathematics. Also a Padma Bhushan recipient, he was conferred the US’ 2011 National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama.

“It is satisfying when one is recognised with an award. My immediate thought was one of astonishment and a feeling of how fortunate I have been. I was able to find environments both in India and in the US that helped me develop and grow as a professional mathematician,” he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Ramanujan’s birthday announced 2012 to be the National Mathematical Year and urged the mathematical community to address the shortage of top quality mathematicians in India.

Referring to this, Varadhan suggested that India needs to develop a large number of colleges providing quality education for students earning their first college degree.

“This is the pipeline that feeds talent into higher studies in nonprofessional subjects. There are many more institutions of high quality today, but they are mostly open to postgraduate students”.

He says mathematics is like solving puzzles.

“This is one of the things I learnt from school and my early education. One can do mathematics for fun,” he said.

His findings are widely used in fields like insurance and finance.

He said the probability theory cannot predict rare and unexpected events but can help us understand them and minimise the risks.

“We live in an uncertain world. Unexpected and rare events happen all the time. While we cannot predict them, we need to understand them,” Varadhan said.

“Probability is a quantitative measure of how likely an event is. Small probability signifies how rare it is. If a rare event has serious negative consequences, we definitely want to keep its probability low. How low should it be before we can tolerate the risk depends on the circumstances. It therefore becomes necessary to estimate the probability of rare events with some precision,” Varadhan said.

“Of course, this does not come from thin air, but rather from a mathematical model that describes the phenomenon,” he added. Probability, as a field, was already in the mainstream of mathematics from 1930s when an axiomatic treatment was provided, he noted.

“But the mathematical theory is only about methods of calculating probabilities from the model. The validity of the model and an understanding of how accurately it describes the underlying phenomenon is not strictly speaking part of the mathematical theory. It is more statistical in nature and depends on an understanding of the rationale for the model and one’s past experience with it,” Varadhan said.

Emotions flow as Trinidad’s ‘daughter PM’ visits Bihar village

The entire village of Bhelupur as well as hundreds from neighbouring areas gathered for a glimpse of the “daughter PM” when Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar set foot in the land of her ancestors for the first time this month.

A helicopter carrying Kamla Persad Bissessar, the first woman with facts. And we will do it as a consistent campaign now,” said Cellie Gonsalves, a Canada-based NRI of Goan origin.

Cellie was in Goa recently along with a delegation of the ‘Save Goa Campaign UK’ to meet top officials and place their grievances about illegal mining, which has been backed by several ruling politicians.

World tourism boards, Indian embassies across the globe, business houses, iron ore traders and global steel industries are likely to be the target of this campaign which aims to embarrass state and federal governments to act against the mining rampages in Goa, where Chief Minister Digambar Kamat himself has been accused by the opposition of sitting over a Rs.25,000 crore mining scam.

Cellie’s angst represents the collective disgust of thousands of ethnic Goans settled across the globe who have signed up for the anti-mining campaign.

According to an official record sent by the Trinidad and Tobago government to Bihar, Persad Bissessar’s great-grandfather Ram Lakhan Mishra had left Bhelupur in 1889.

According to officials, villagers gifted her a chunk of its soil and a silver crown. She also planted five trees -- neem, pakad, pipal, ashok and barh -- near Sipariya Kali Mandir where her ancestral home was once located.

She was offered traditional Bihari dishes -- litti chokha, chura and tilwa

A large number of people from Bihar had migrated to the Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad, Suriname, South Africa and other places in the 19th century to serve as indentured labourers on sugarcane and rubber plantations.

Goan NRIs campaign against illegal mining

The Goan diaspora worldwide is spearheading a campaign to shame the state and central authorities into reining in illegal and indiscriminate mining in Goa, timing it just ahead of assembly polls.

Groups of ethnic Goans spread across Europe, Australia, Africa and the Americas have bunched under a global network ‘Save Goa Campaign UK’ orchestrated by a Britain-based NRI, Carmen Miranda.

“Goa is being mined out of existence and the politicians and the bureaucrats are doing nothing about it. And yet they want to project Goa as a nice beautiful place to the world for tourism. We are in a position to embarrass this government globally

Initially the campaign, through photo exhibitions, power point presentations and lectures, started spreading the word to the Goan diaspora, about the unfathomable quantum of misery which has been unleashed on their native land by uncontrolled open cast iron ore mining, which results in extraction of over 50 million tonnes of ironlaced ore annually.

Donald Gonsalves, a Britainbased retired professional, said the diaspora members were planning to switch to a higher gear. He said they were in the process of collecting data about the buyers of Goan ore in China and other parts of the world and would petition them against it.

“Eighty-six percent of the iron ore from Goa goes to China and a huge percent of that ore is illegal. As part of this global campaign, we will tell these ore buyers that the ore from Goa is illegally extracted and that by buying the ore, they were being party to a crime,” Gonsalves said.

Miranda, a former head of global development agency PANOS who kickstarted the campaign, said they had already petitioned the chief minister of Goa, the entire cabinet, the chief secretary and the Goa governor to act against illegal mining.

“Circumstances beyond our control have led us to deliver this petition at a time when parties are campaigning for the March 3 assembly elections. We believe the message from the Goan diaspora is in fact timely and relevant to both the government currently in power and its successor,” Miranda said.

Describing the campaign, Miranda said: “We (global Goan associations) have joined forces and are determined to do whatever is in our power to try and prevent a catastrophic environment disaster in Goa, as a result of excessive, unregulated and uncontrolled strip mining in our homeland.” iANs

La’affaire Rushdie casts long shadow at Jaipur Literature Fest

There was no getting away from the shadow of Salman Rushdie at the sprawling Diggi Place where the grand literary show drew big crowds.

In fact, conspiracy theories were proliferating about what kept the author of The Satanic Verses out of this thoughtfest. Adding fuel to the fire was the quiet instruction by the organisers to four authors, who defiantly read out excerpts from the banned book, to go home on security grounds.

“The voices of protest are very small,” said Bangladeshi novelist Tahmina Anam while standing up for the freedom of expression. “It’s disappointing and a shame,” said Iranian writer Kamin Mohammadi.

“Nobody is talking openly, but more people are buying into the conspiracy theory that the security threat was a ploy to avoid needless trouble. Salman is right. It’s a pity that India is pandering to this lunatic fringe,” said an author, who did not wish to be named.

The controversial author has said in a tweet that the Rajasthan police invented a plot of “hitmen on way to Jaipur” to kill him to keep him away.

I wanted to give a voice to Salman

Rushdie: Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru, one of the four authors who read out excerpts of Salman Rushdie’s

The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literature Festival and had to leave the city, says he wanted to give a voice to a writer who had been silenced by a death threat.

“We knew it would be considered provocative to quote from it, but did not believe it was illegal,” Kunzru writes in The Guardian

A complaint has been lodged with the police in Jaipur against the four authors who read out excerpts from The Satanic Verses in an unscheduled session of the festival. The four authors were Kunzru, Amitava Kumar, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi.

When he heard the news that Rushdie would not be attending the festival, he and

Amitava Kumar were “extremely angry”.

“We felt that it was important to show support for Salman, who is often misrepresented and caricatured as a sort of folk-devil by people who know little or nothing about his work. This situation has arisen in India at a time when free speech is under attack. Recent moves to institute ‘prescreening’ of internet content, and kneejerk bans of books such as Joseph Lelyveld’s masterly biography of Gandhi, show that these are not good times for those who wish to say unpopular things in the world’s largest democracy,” Kunzru wrote.

“We decided that we would use our afternoon session, in which Amitava was due to interview me about my novel Gods Without Men to highlight the situation. We decided (without consulting the festival organisers, or anyone else) that I would make a statement, and then we would quote from The Satanic Verses

“We knew this little-read and muchburned book was banned in India, but it was our understanding that this meant it was a crime to publish, sell or possess a copy. We knew it would be considered provocative to quote from it, but did not believe it was illegal.”

The authors downloaded two passages, 179 and 208 words in length respectively, from a pirate text on the internet.

Kunzru went on to write that their intention “was not to offend anyone’s religious sensibilities, but to give a voice to a writer who had been silenced by a death threat”.

“Reading from another one of his books would have been meaningless. The Satanic Verses was the cause of the trouble, so The Satanic Verses it would have to be. We did not choose passages that have been construed as blasphemous by Muslim opponents of the book - this would have been pointless, as these passages have overshadowed the rest of the content of the novel, which concerns the relationship between faith and doubt, and contains much that has nothing to do with religion whatsoever.

“We wanted to demystify the book. It is, after all, just a book. Not a bomb. Not a knife or a gun. Just a book.”

Kunzru wrote that he had already finished when Sanjoy Roy came to the side of the stage and told us that we shouldn’t continue.

“...the festival organisers were upset. This was something about which they had no foreknowledge, and over which they had no control. The bad atmosphere was compounded by the news that, completely independently, two other writers - Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi - had also read from The Satanic Verses.”

The author said that “the Jaipur police commissioner arrived, interviewed us briefly, and went away, apparently reassured that no law had in fact been broken”.

He added that it was left to his friend Sara Chamberlain to find someone to provide legal advice to him.

“This advice was blunt: I should leave India immediately, as otherwise I risked arrest and might well find myself unable to return home to New York until any resulting cases had been resolved.”

Fatwas outrageous, laugh for sanity: Iranian writer A thousand jokes go around in Iran every day mocking President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the pretensions of the powerful, says Iranian writer Kamin Mohammadi, outraged that Salman Rushdie was forced to cancel his visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival.

In a freewheeling interview, Mohammadi said she is overwhelmed by the crowds at the grand literary show in the Pink City on her first visit to India, but is unable to make sense of all this holy brouhaha about forcing Rushdie to stay away from this carnival of the word.

“It’s a shame that human rights take second place to freedom of speech and expression. It’s disappointing,” Mohammadi said when asked about the so-called security threat to Rushdie, the author of the controversial The Satantic Verses, in the country of his birth.

“It’s absolutely outrageous, this business of fatwas. Islam is a peaceful religion,” said the author-journalist when asked about the fatwa imposed by Iranian rightwing leader Ayatollah Khomeini over two decades ago that made Rushdie a target of fundamentalists all over the world.

“I don’t know how ordinary Iranians feel insulted by Rushdie’s book,” she said.

An Iranian exile living in London, the tall 30-something Mohammadi, sporting jeans and a trendy jacket, laughs a lot as she speaks, and feels satire and laughter are a sensitive individual’s weapons in illiberal societies and regimes.

“A thousand jokes go around in Iran. They poke fun at the regime and at President Ahmadinejad. They pronounce Ahmadinejad in Iranian in such a manner that the word means silly, stupid,” she said. “Laughter is a way of coping with illiberal regimes.”

Mohammadi was nine years old when her family fled Iran during the 1979 Revolution. “Oh, how they laughed hiding from the bombs,” she said, a trace of sadness creeping into her voice, while talking about her book The Cypress Tree, a moving and passionate memoir about three generations of her sprawling clan. The book evokes her journey home at the age of 27 to rediscover her Iranian self and to discover for the first time the story of her family.

Is the Iranian society on the cusp of change? Is a variant of the Arab Spring around the corner? Mohammadi has sanguine and tempered views on the quiet but incremental process of transition under way in Iran.

“There is not enough appetite for revolution in Iran. They have seen the violence and the bloodshed. I believe the change in Iran is going to come in a gradual incremental fashion, and not from the pressure from the West.”

Revolution may have become a dirty word due to the way it has been abused in the past, but the author is confident that Iran is navigating its way to liberalism and modernity as the yearning for change cuts across all classes.

“The change will come. There is no appetite for the present system. Human rights, freedom - that’s the idea of Iran they have. This yearning for change cuts across all classes.”

“A lot of Iranians have come out in the open about it. The diaspora has a strong connection with society.”

The author has a word of caution for the West, specially the US, which is often speculated to nurture a plan to attack Iran.

“If you think by attacking my country, you will get to change the regime, you are deluded. That’s a great misunderstanding,” she said. “That will not happen; on the contrary, the Iranian people will band behind the current regime. Attacking Iran will be a total disaster.”

“Don’t forget, we are the oldest piece of land occupied by the same race.”

India low on global homicide, violence scale: Steven Pinker

Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, known for his radical theories about the evolution of language and violence in society, has a good word for India: the country is on the right side of the global homicide and crime scale despite the wars it has fought against Pakistan and numerous civil conflicts.

“The last statistics that I had said India had a homicide rate of 5.5. It is in the second lowest range...India has had several wars with Pakistan but they didn’t compare to the Iran or Vietnam war. India has seen a lot of civil wars but on a per capita basis not a large percentage of the Indian population has been killed in these wars,” Pinker said in an interview on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

All the wars put together since 1948 have killed around 50,000 people, Pinker said.

Pinker said the most violent spot around the globe was probably the sub-Saharan Africa - Congo and Sudan’s Darfur region.

The Canadian-American experimental psychologist, who teaches at Harvard University, is the author of eight books. Two of his works, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature and The Better Angels of Nature: Why Violence has Declined have been acclaimed worldwide for their pathbreaking ideas about cognitive science of the mind and theories about the scaling down of violence.

The scientist said many had “predicted after the second world war that it was the beginning” of many wars but that did not happen.

“Korea and Vietnam are not happening any more,” Pinker said. He said it was too soon to tell whether institutions like democracy, peacekeeping forces were effective in controlling violence.

Pinker said there were greater levels of intellectual awareness in society and new ideas “as opposed to early ideas of tribal purity”.

“The ultimate idea is the value of human life,” he said.

He said the idea of valuing human life, prevention of violence against minority and women were finding advocates but “there were still pockets where it was not the case”.

“Suppression of free speech, external ideas and violations of human rights tend to be in Islamic countries where there are honour killings. In Iran, Khomeini wanted to restrict the number of students studying humanities because they question values.”

North Korea is another country that has shut itself off from the flow, Pinker said.

Pinker said his book The Better Angels of Nature was based on points he had made in 2007 in a couple of paragraphs - “even if human nature has violence, there has been a decline in European homicide and slowing down of corporal punishment”.

“I had made these points years ago in 2007. My agent said what are you so optimistic about? There was more evidence of declining violence than I knew about (I began to get feedback), decline in war in Europe and worldwide in 1990 and I started to see a pattern,” Pinker said.

The scientist has begun to work on his next project - A Style Manual For 21st Century that explores the modern linguistics of cognitive science.

“The book will be about what makes language change based on how the human brain processes language,” Pinker said.

Twinkling, bejewelled Indian wedding cards - got one yet?

They could be Swarovski studded, they could match the bride’s trousseau, they could come in multiple folds and, yes, they might just cost Rs.100,000 (about $2,000) each. Welcome to the world of the big fat Indian wedding card!

The country’s wedding market is said to be worth about Rs.1,500 billion (about $30 billion) - and growing at about 10-15 percent every year; so little surprise that marriage invites are getting to be a glitzy and exclusive affair.

NRIs, especially, are a major constituent of this market. The wedding in 2004 of Britainbased Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal’s daughter was said to have been a 30-million pound sterling affair.

“It’s been studied that NRIs based in the US, Britain, Canada, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand want their marriages to be complete Indian affairs and this desire propels them to visit India for the selection of cards, jewelleries and venues,” Gourav Rakshit, the business head of shaadi.com, said recently.

The latest fad is exotic invitation cards.

Kapco Press Pvt Ltd CEO Neeraj Kapoor, who has been in the business for 26 years, stated that “people from around the globe are splurging on wedding cards like never before”.

“This has added to the growth of designers, manufacturers and paper importers. Since cost and variety have gone up, there is no end to innovation,” he said.

“People no longer want simple designs. More designers are entering. Prices have skyrocketed.

Everyone, including the NRI, asks for the fanciest and most exclusive design even if it’s not worth the amount spent. Some even say Indian designs are simply outstanding and can’t be found anywhere else,” he said.

Triveni Bakshi, a Canada-based NRI, is completely in awe of Indian designs.

“Yes! It’s true that Indian wedding cards have no match. I personally like a lot of bling, something which has to do with fabrics or metal. Indian designs have so much variety - scroll with silk fabric and traditional Indian fonts or silver plated wedding card with embossed content,” Bakshi said while attending the Celebrating Vivaha exhibition in New Delhi.

There are other designs too - from an oversized envelope with Lord Ganesha’s picture drawn over with details about the wedding to an exquisitely worded invitation. The invites sent out are designed to wow guests.

“Innovation is the key and keeping this in mind ethnic designs have made a comeback. Also, personalised and handmade cards are a big trend nowadays as many people feel these add an emotional touch to the entire occasion,” said wedding card designer Raj Kapoor.

Known for his brand Kaypee, Kapoor said, “There are people who ask for multifolded cards which can be made to order, while others ask for scrolled out cards with matter printed on it.”

Prices have also gone up.

“The price of wedding invitation cards depends on the materials used. A simple wedding card starts at Rs.30 per piece and it goes into lakhs for the Swarovski embellished multi-folded cards with box attached to it,” said Shalini Punj, who runs wedding card company Vivaahsutra.

When it comes to the most sought after designs, striped, bejewelled motifs, bold colours, and vintage patterns matching the design of the bride’s wedding trousseau are on the priority list.

“Vertical, horizontal and multicoloured stripes are termed as one of the most sought after trends this season. Also, embellishing the invitation with small rhinestones, pearltoned beads or Swarovski crystals makes a low-key invitation style fashionable. The list is endless,” said card-designer Piyali Rana.

“What is also gaining popularity are motif patterns. Brides ask to create a pattern on wedding cards inspired by her lehengas or saris. For instance, a ring of rosettes, a square of lace applique, or bead work.”

Fancy boxes made of cardboard, hard plastic or even pure silver are also sent out as invitation cards.

“There are some cards which are given in fancy boxes made up of cardboard or hard plastic. They are decorated in such an elegant manner that after marriage it can be used as a jewellery or make-up box. So cards today are not restricted to only paper with details about wedding, but they have taken a different mould altogether,” she added.

Africans want to emulate Indian model of development: Pitroda

Impressed by the efforts of social entrepreneurs to make the public delivery service more effective, five African countries want to emulate the Indian models of development, said Sam Pitroda in New Delhi recently.

“At least five African countries are looking at Indian models of development to solve the problems at the bottom of the pyramid” as Western models were not scalable, said Pitroda, adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on public information infrastructure and innovations.

Addressing 100 young social innovators at Action For India Forum 2012, Pitroda said India was in a unique position to solve the problems of the poor as it had the largest number of poor and a huge amount of talent to address challenges.

“There is a lot of talent solving the problems of the rich. Innovations are needed to solve the problem of the poor,” he told the entrepreneurs and asked them to focus on technology that can make social enterprises scale their operations to get them more pervasive in coverage and impact.

Pitroda said the union and state governments were taking steps to support social entrepreneurs to set up new business models.

“To support social entrepreneurs set up new business models to bring about change, efforts are underway to increase the corpus of National Innovation Fund as soon as it collects Rs.500 crore.”

The fund is expected to be operational by June-to-July, 2012 and would include Rs.100 crore that was announced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee.