How can you design an ethical robot lawyer? What regulations are needed for flying taxis? These are some of the questions the British government is hoping to answer with a new £10m fund for futuristic projects that pose significant challenges to existing rules and regulations. The business secretary, Greg Clark, said the regulators' pioneer fund, being awarded to 15 projects, would help regulators "unblock" innovation that might otherwise be hampered by red tape. Clark said the move would show that Britain had a flexible regulatory environment which could keep pace with technology.

BENGALURU: Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, the poster boys of Indian ecommerce, are brazenly betting on so-called moonshot ideas, backing early-stage technology companies working in areas such as healthcare and otherwise struggling to raise money from traditional investors. The latest such company the Flipkart cofounders have backed is Pandorum Technologies, which has found a way to 3D-print experimental-stage human liver tissues in a laboratory. The two Bansals are also finalising another investment in a startup that makes implants, which would mark their fourth funding deal into a healthcare startup. Overall, one-fourth of the two dozen or so companies in their combined investment portfolios are working on similar deep technology ideas, making the Bansals a rare breed of investors not averse to taking risky bets that can spur truly disruptive innovation. "In India, core sectors like healthcare, education and supply chain will be disrupted (by emerging) technology... Those (startups) don't get funding easily while consumer internet companies do," Binny Bansal said.