NEW DELHI: India could soon go the US way and set aside grand prizes to encourage innovation in the country if the recommendations of the Tarun Khanna-led expert group on innovation are accepted.Finance minister Arun Jaitley had in his budget speech 2015-16 announced government’s intention to establish the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in NITI and allocated an initial sun of Rs 150 crores to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in India. Following this, NITI Aayog had set up a committee under professor Tarun Khanna to suggest an umbrella structure of AIM that would oversee innovation eco-system of the country.In a comprehensive report submitted to the Aayog recently, the committee has recommended a three-layered pyramid structure to fundamentally and sustainably boost entrepreneurship in India with focus on providing adequate support to early stage ventures, creating an enabling environment for innovation and attaching entrepreneurship to large scale economic and social programs.“The committee recommends a “Grand Prizes” approach to finding ultra-low-cost solutions to India’ s most intractable problems,” the report said adding that incentivized innovation has worked around the world in stimulating innovation quoting the example of US and a similar practice adopted by Infosys in India.The committee has recommended government to give tax benefits to corporates willing to invest 1% of their profit towards research labs in universities besides suggesting that all contracts with foreign defence companies above $5 billion should include a clause for 5% of contract value to be directed to establish research centric universities with strong emphasis on its core product areas in particular and broadly focused on the related areas in general, thus harnessing corporate funds to finance R&D. ‘“Besides a “Make in Universities” program which would involve setting up 500 tinkering labs with one 3D printer per institute and trained people to operate this can be introduced across the country, including in smaller cities, to boost the spirit of production and collaboration,” it said.The committee has further recommended that the one-time budget allocation of Rs 1000 crore to SETU should be used to jumpstart innovation through two concrete initiatives at scale. “We recommend, for example, that half of the Rs 1000 crores be spent in upgrading the system of incubators already in place in the country and to award the majority of the Rs 500 crores to the best ten incubators, publicly or privately funded, with the proviso that they will be held accountable for the efficacy with which the funds are spent. “The remaining Rs 500 crores SETU money should be used to set up tinkering labs, which would be centres that will permit aspiring entrepreneurs to experiment to create products that address local problems,” it added.According to the recommendations of the high-level committee on the structure of AIM, vice chairman of NITI Aayog shall serve as the chairman of Atal Innovation Mission board with seven secretary level officers from related ministries appointed as directors on the board. While only four of them would have voting rights, it has recommended appointment of four outside independent directors with voting rights to be chosen by the government from outside. “With this structure in place, private and public sector directors would have an equal number of votes,” it has said.