Welcome to Nidhi Prayas

Incubators

Under NIDHI-PRAYAS program, DST aims to promote upto 10 PRAYAS Centres every year for next five years.However, more number of PRAYAS Centres may be supported depending upon the fund availability and merit of the incubator.The interested incubators may apply for PRAYAS program (to host PRAYAS centre) , call for applications will be announced once a year and applications will be invited online on the portal.

APPLICATION PROCESS

LIST OF DOCUMENTS
ELIGIBILITY FOR INCUBATORS

ELIGIBILITY FOR INCUBATORS

Existing and operational incubators promoted or recognized by any State or Department of Central Government of India are eligible to apply under the NIDHI-PRAYAS program.
The incubator should be in existence for at least three years, with proven track record of incubation. The years of existence for each incubator will be counted from the
- Date of registration as a legal entity OR
- Date of Sanction order as TBI by state or Department of Central Government of India whichever is earlier
The applicant incubators &organizations especially created entirely by State or Department of Central Government of India may be consider for relaxation of the 3 year’s period of existence.
The applicant incubator should have minimum of 20 incubates
The proposal to be submitted by the incubator with a proven track record in promotion of entrepreneurship,supporting innovations and startups. The incubator is supposed to have adequate expertise and infrastructure to support advancement of innovation and its commercialization (i.e supporting innovators for progression of their idea from *TR level 2 to TR level 4-5)

The financial support for establishing a PC would be extended to the recommended incubator, essentially, a not-for-profit legal entity registered as a society/trust/section 8 company. DST encourages selected PC to collaborate with an industry, an academic institution and with other institutions of repute focusing on innovation, research, testing, validation, quality control, commercialization mentorship and start-up promotion to create the required eco system.DST at present does not support for-profit incubators.
Preference will be given to the following –

Incubators affiliated with technical/engineering academic institutions.
Incubators having full time CEO and Independent team managing tbi/incubator operations

The support will be provided to selected PC at the following level.
- Category 1: Funding support upto Rs. 1.2 cr, (maximum support up to Rs. 10 lakhs per innovator and maximum Rs. 20 lakhs for consumable and administrative cost for management of PRAYAS program to PC) where the PC is having all necessary infrastructure (labs/equipment) to implement the PRAYAS program.
- Category 2: Funding support upto Rs. 2.2 cr, (maximum support up to Rs. 10 lakhs per incubate, maximum support up to Rs. 1 crore for the equipment & infrastructure cost and maximum Rs. 20 lakhs for consumable and administrative cost for management of PRAYAS program to PC) where the PC does not have adequate infrastructure to implement the PRAYAS program. The incubator must provide detailed information on the equipment required and proper justification for requirement of such facility.The lab support to a PC will be provided for only first year.
A pure R&D proposal for academic pursuits and industrial consultancy will not be eligible for support.
The proposals which are not complete or do not meet eligibility criteria will not be considered.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
PRAYAS Scheme Document

Step 1
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Step 3
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Step 5

(Actions will be enabled only when the call is open)

Printable application will be auto-generated. TBI to print & sign the application form, affix the seal and the signed application form along with the additional documents to be sent to following address:

"To,
NIDHI-PRAYAS PMU
Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, (SINE)
3rd Floor CSRE Building,
IIT Bombay, Powai,
Mumbai 400 076"

PMU will verify and forward completed applications to PMC. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.

TBIs with verified applications will be presented to the PMC.

Approval for PC will be given by the PMC after the deliberations done during the committee meeting. The decision of the PMC will be firm and binding.

FAQs

Who is eligible to apply for PC?What are the eligibility criteria?

Incubators promoted by Government of India are eligible to apply for the Prayas Centers(PC). Interested Incubators should be not-for-profit organisations registered as either Society or Trust or Section 8 companies. They have been in existence for at least 3 years. This limit of time period may be relaxed for entities created by the central government or state governments.Please refer the eligibility section
Our Incubator is a cell/part of Host Institute and is not incorporated as a separate entity. Can we still apply for a Prayas Centre?

Application for PRAYAS centre can be made by Incubators who are registered entities.
When can we apply for Prayas Centre? What is the process to be followed post applications?
Call for applications is announced once a year. Information of the call will be displayed on the website among other media announcements. Last date and closure time of the applications and submission of the documents will also be part of the announcements. Applicants are recommended to not to wait for submission of the applications till last day to avoid any problem arising out of any technical issue on either side. Online applications should be followed by sending hard copy each of the signed and stamped application form and other documents (refer the list of documents) to the office of SINE, IIT Bombay by courier or speed post.
LIST OF DOCUMENTS
Following is the list of documents whose scanned copy is to be uploaded after the completed form is filled:
- Covering letter to PMC, on Incubator letterhead. Click here for format.
- Covering letter to PMU, on Incubator letterhead. Click here for format.
- Endorsement letter to PMC from Host Institution on HI letterhead. Click here for format.
- Registration certificate of Incubator as a Not-for-Profit entity (Society/Trust/Section 8/25 company)
- MoA or MoU (whichever applicable) with Host Institution
- Cancelled cheque of Incubator bank account. If selected as a PRAYAS Centre a separate Interest-bearing bank account will be opened for NIDHI PRAYAS
- PAN Card of organization
- CV/Bio-Data of NIDHI-PRAYAS coordinator
- Document briefly explaining the contributions of the proposed/recruited Incubator team for managing the PC.
- List of potential innovators for NIDHI-PRAYAS
- Layout plan for 3000sqft PC
- Time-Linked Activity Chart and Detailed Work Plan for 5 years
- Annual accounts (Balance Sheet and P&L) for last 2 years.
- Detailed equipment list, including costs, to be procured for the Fabrication Lab.
What are the documents we need to send along with the application form?
For the detailed list refer List of Documents given in Application Process.
LIST OF DOCUMENTS
Following is the list of documents whose scanned copy is to be uploaded after the completed form is filled:
- Covering letter to PMC, on Incubator letterhead. Click here for format.
- Covering letter to PMU, on Incubator letterhead. Click here for format.
- Endorsement letter to PMC from Host Institution on HI letterhead. Click here for format.
- Registration certificate of Incubator as a Not-for-Profit entity (Society/Trust/Section 8/25 company)
- MoA or MoU (whichever applicable) with Host Institution
- Cancelled cheque of Incubator bank account. If selected as a PRAYAS Centre a separate Interest-bearing bank account will be opened for NIDHI PRAYAS
- PAN Card of organization
- CV/Bio-Data of NIDHI-PRAYAS coordinator
- Document briefly explaining the contributions of the proposed/recruited Incubator team for managing the PC.
- List of potential innovators for NIDHI-PRAYAS
- Layout plan for 3000sqft PC
- Time-Linked Activity Chart and Detailed Work Plan for 5 years
- Annual accounts (Balance Sheet and P&L) for last 2 years.
- Detailed equipment list, including costs, to be procured for the Fabrication Lab.