NIDHI-PRAYAS: Prototype Grant Amount, Eligibility and How to Apply

NIDHI-PRAYAS is a prototype grant, not a fellowship. That single distinction determines almost everything else about it: who is eligible, what the money may be spent on, what you must produce at the end, and — critically — that you do not apply to the Department of Science and Technology (DST) at all. You apply to a host incubator that DST has designated as a PRAYAS Centre.

This matters because most published summaries of the programme are individual incubators’ own recruitment pages, and many still quote the ceiling from the original PRAYAS scheme. The current programme document, NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0, restructured both the amounts and the routing. This guide works from that document and from the programme’s national Programme Management Unit, and flags plainly where a figure depends on which centre you apply through.

NIDHI: the umbrella, briefly

NIDHI stands for the National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations. It is not a single scheme but an umbrella under which DST’s Technology Translation & Innovation Division funds the institutional layer of India’s startup ecosystem. Per the NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0 guidelines, DST has facilitated the establishment of over 200 Technology Business Incubators (TBIs), inclusive-TBIs (iTBIs) and Centres of Excellence (CoEs) under NIDHI. These are located within or around academic, technical and management institutions, and technology and research parks, so that ventures can draw on the host institution’s expertise and infrastructure.

The design logic is that DST funds institutions to run programmes, and those institutions select and fund individual innovators. NIDHI-PRAYAS is the component of that umbrella aimed at the earliest hardware stage. The guidelines describe the gap it exists to close: substantial support is available for R&D at one end and for commercialisation at the other, but early-stage prototyping is under-served, and innovators lose momentum there for want of resources. PRAYAS is explicitly positioned as a pre-incubation initiative — support for prototype development prior to formal incubation, intended to feed a better-qualified pipeline into the incubators that follow.

The umbrella itself is broader than this page can cover — it spans incubator establishment, seed support and accelerator components. Research administrators working across India’s funding landscape may also want the wider institutional context in our overview of the Department of Science and Technology and of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation.

What the acronym actually stands for

DST’s own documents render PRAYAS two ways. The NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0 guidelines head the programme as “PRomotion and Acceleration of Young and Aspiring innovators and Startups”; India’s official Science, Technology & Innovation portal renders it “PRomoting and Accelerating Young and ASpiring innovators & startups”. Both are government sources and the difference is cosmetic, but if you are quoting the expansion in a proposal, take it from the call document you are actually applying under.

The grant amount — the number most often quoted wrong

Under NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0 there is no single national figure. The per-innovator ceiling depends on which of two categories of centre you apply through:

• PRAYAS Centre (PC) — technology-based centres. Maximum prototyping funding support to the centre of up to Rs. 2.0 crore, with a maximum of up to Rs. 20 lakh per innovator.
• Advance PRAYAS Centre (APC) — specialised centres focused on deep technology. Maximum prototyping funding support to the centre of up to Rs. 4.0 crore, with a maximum of up to Rs. 40 lakh per innovator.

These are ceilings, not entitlements. The guidelines state that the final amount awarded in each case is subject to approval by the PRAYAS Local Monitoring Committee (PLMC) of the respective PRAYAS Centre. An approved PRAYASEE at an APC is not automatically a Rs. 40 lakh PRAYASEE.

The widely-circulated Rs. 10 lakh figure is not wrong — it is superseded. It is the per-innovator maximum from the original NIDHI-PRAYAS programme (retrospectively “PRAYAS 1.0”), which India’s Science, Technology & Innovation portal describes as a maximum of Rs. 10.00 lakh per innovator, with each centre supporting ten innovators annually for a total of Rs. 1.00 crore per year. If a page quotes Rs. 10 lakh without qualification, check its date before relying on it.

Confirm the operative figure against the live call. Because the ceiling turns on the PC/APC status of your host centre, on PLMC approval, and on the intake cycle you are applying in, the only figure you should put in a budget is the one in the call document published by the specific centre you are applying to — cross-checked against DST’s own programme page at nidhi.dst.gov.in and the PMU portal at nidhi-prayas.org. Do not budget from a third-party summary, including this one.

The sustenance allowance is carved out of the grant, not added to it

A PRAYASEE with no other source of income may receive a sustenance allowance of up to 20 per cent of their approved PRAYAS grant amount for the project duration. Three constraints are easy to miss: it is not mandatory — the PLMC recommends it case by case, on the strength of the idea and the project timeline; it requires that the PRAYASEE pursue the programme full-time with no other formal employment; and it is a percentage of the grant, so every rupee drawn as sustenance is a rupee not spent on the prototype.

Why it is a prototype grant and not a fellowship

A fellowship pays a person to do work over a period; the deliverable is the work itself, and the money follows the individual. NIDHI-PRAYAS inverts each of those. The grant attaches to a project to build a specific physical thing, the deliverable is a working prototype, and the funds are released against build milestones rather than as a stipend. The sustenance allowance above is the only stipend-like element, and it is optional, capped and conditional on having no other income — the exception that demonstrates the rule.

The consequences are concrete. The programme’s own expected-outcome parameters for a centre are: innovators having a working prototype by the end of the PRAYAS cycle; IP filings and startups registered; external funding or investment raised; expressions of interest from industry, corporates or manufacturers; technologies advanced beyond TRL 4 towards TRL 7; prototypes developed or tested in real-world conditions or receiving early customer validation; and IP converted into functional prototypes. Not one of those is a publication.

That is also why the exclusions look the way they do — see below — and why this sits in a different category from India’s researcher-directed awards. If you are weighing this against a doctoral or postdoctoral route, the contrast with the DST INSPIRE Fellowship is instructive: INSPIRE funds a person to pursue research; PRAYAS funds a build. They are not alternatives to one another so much as instruments for different stages and different intents. The broader concept is covered in our dictionary entry on proof-of-concept funding.

Eligibility: the gates that actually disqualify people

Per the programme’s national PMU, the criteria for an innovator are less restrictive than most applicants assume in one respect and more restrictive in another.

What does not block you

• Age. The applicant innovator must be at least eighteen (18) years of age on the date of application, evidenced by a valid passport, Aadhaar or Voter ID. Despite “Young and Aspiring” in the programme name, the published criterion is a floor, not a ceiling.
• Not being a company. Individual innovators may apply without first forming a registered entity. Grantees are, however, encouraged to formally incorporate as a DPIIT-registered startup within 6 to 8 months.

What does block you

• Prior government funding above the threshold. Applicants who have cumulatively received more than Rs. 40 lakh in grant funding from government schemes or programmes are not eligible. This is the gate that catches serious applicants — a team that has already run through a state innovation grant and a central scheme can be ruled out on arithmetic before the idea is ever assessed. Total your prior public grant support first.
• The wrong kind of project. Projects relating to pure software development, e-commerce, service solutions and app-based solutions are ineligible, as is funding research or student internships in academic institutions. PRAYAS funds physical product development. A software layer on top of a hardware build is fine; software as the product is not.
• Unclear IP. In all cases the applicant must demonstrate clear ownership — or a licensed right to use — of any intellectual property underpinning the proposed prototype. If the underlying invention was made in a university lab, settle the institutional position before applying, not after. Our guide to India’s National IPR Policy and institutional technology transfer covers how that ownership question is normally resolved.

Applicants are also expected to demonstrate full-time engagement for the project duration and active participation in review, mentoring and evaluation processes.

How the application actually works: you apply to a centre, not to DST

This is the structural point that catches most first-time applicants, and it has two entirely separate application tracks running under the same programme name.

Track 1 — the incubator applies to DST (you are not involved)

An incubator applies to become a PRAYAS Centre or Advance PRAYAS Centre. That proposal is submitted online in the prescribed proforma via the PMU portal and DST’s NIDHI page, forwarded by the Head of the Incubator with an Endorsement Letter from the Head of the Institution. Roughly one month is allowed after a call is announced. Evaluation runs at two levels: Level 1, initial scrutiny against basic eligibility and screening parameters set by the PRAYAS Management Committee (PMC); and Level 2, a presentation before the PMC by shortlisted incubators. Applicant incubators are explicitly asked not to send physical copies to DST or the PMU.

Which category an incubator may even apply under is constrained by its history: only incubators that have not previously received support under NIDHI-PRAYAS 1.0 are eligible under certain support categories, while preference for APC status may be given to centres that have successfully completed a minimum of three cycles of PRAYAS 1.0 as standard tech-based PRAYAS Centres with a strong track record.

Track 2 — you apply to a designated centre

Innovators and startups seeking support apply to the designated PCs/APCs using a common application template through the NIDHI PRAYAS Portal (portal.nidhi-prayas.org). Each centre then runs its own transparent screening mechanism to evaluate applications on the potential of the idea or innovation, and its PLMC approves the award and the amount.

Two practical implications follow. First, there is no national deadline for innovators — intake timing is set by each centre, so the question “when does NIDHI-PRAYAS open?” only has an answer once you have picked a centre. Second, your choice of centre sets your funding ceiling: applying to a PC caps you at Rs. 20 lakh regardless of how deeptech your project is. The guidelines encourage applicants to align applications with the actual development stage of the innovation, and note that where a proposal is not approved at an APC it may be considered for a PC instead, subject to independent assessment by that centre’s PLMC.

Nationally, DST has designated the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay as the Programme Management Unit for NIDHI-PRAYAS, responsible for overseeing and managing the process end to end. The programme is monitored by the PRAYAS Management Committee, constituted with DST’s approval.

What counts as a prototype milestone

Funding is released on a tranche and milestone basis, so milestone definition is not paperwork — it is the disbursement schedule. The programme gives two anchors for what a defensible milestone looks like.

The first is technology readiness. The stated outcome is technologies advanced beyond TRL 4 towards TRL 7. TRL 4 is component validation in a laboratory environment; TRL 7 is a system prototype demonstrated in an operational environment. A milestone set that ends with a bench demonstration is aiming at the bottom of that range. Milestones should walk the build from validated components through an integrated system to demonstration in something resembling real conditions.

The second is evidence outside your own workshop. Real-world testing, early customer validation and expressions of interest from industry, corporates or manufacturers are all named outcomes. A milestone phrased as “prototype tested with two prospective users under operating conditions” is stronger than “prototype assembled” because it maps directly onto what the centre is measured on.

Non-achievement has defined consequences

Support to a PRAYASEE may be discontinued for non-achievement of milestones, misutilisation of funds, or loss of project viability. Such decisions are taken by the PLMC with proper documentation, unutilised funds may be recovered as per guidelines, and the centre must report the instance to the PMU. Treat the milestone schedule as a funding condition, not an aspiration.

Disbursement and duration

• Project term: 15 months for each PRAYASEE.
• Extension: a further 6 months may be granted under exceptional circumstances with PLMC approval.
• Beyond 21 months, the PRAYASEE must seek approval from the PMC, DST, or its designated subcommittee as applicable.
• Release: tranche/milestone basis, with the PLMC approving the award amount.

On the centre side, disbursement is also gated on staffing: each PC/APC is led by a PRAYAS Programme Head / Chief Innovation Officer, selected by a committee constituted by the host incubator with a DST nominee as member or observer, and that appointment is a prerequisite for releasing any grants beyond the first tranche. The Programme Head may hold another operational role in the incubator but must not hold a research-associate or any academic/research role in the host institution during the appointment. If a centre’s grant stalls, this is a common reason.

Equity and IP: what you keep

This is unusually explicit for a public prototyping scheme, and it is worth quoting in substance because it is the term applicants most often assume is negotiable.

• IP vests with the innovator. Intellectual property generated under the NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0 programme shall vest with the innovator or startup, unless otherwise agreed through a separate contractual arrangement. The PMU states the same in team terms: IP generated vests with the innovator or with the team as per the agreement.
• No equity, and no equity as a precondition. The Host Institution or PC/APC shall not mandate equity or IP ownership as a precondition for support. Separately, the incubator, PC or APC is not allowed to take or hold equity stakes in any PRAYASEE, incubatee or startup in exchange for any component related to the NIDHI-PRAYAS grant — including use of facilities, fabrication services, or the prototyping grant amount itself.
• Side agreements must be firewalled. Where an incubator and a PRAYASEE do execute an agreement by mutual consent during the programme, it must explicitly clarify that the arrangement is independent of the NIDHI-PRAYAS grant and is not a condition for services availed under the scheme.

Read together, these clauses mean a centre may still negotiate a commercial relationship with you — but it cannot bundle it with your grant, your bench space or your fab-lab access. If a centre presents an equity term sheet as part of onboarding, that is a matter to raise, with the guidelines in hand. The general mechanics of how institutional ownership and licensing normally operate are covered in our technology transfer entry, and the funding stage that typically follows a completed prototype in our seed funding entry.

What the PRAYAS Centre itself receives

Understanding the centre’s own package explains why the routing is what it is — the incubator is being funded to provide workshop capacity, not merely to pass money through.

• DST NIDHI Maker Bhavan — up to Rs. 1.5 crore for establishment, or up to Rs. 1.0 crore for upgrading an existing PRAYAS Shala where the centre has already successfully implemented PRAYAS 1.0.
• Up to Rs. 30 lakh for consumables and administrative cost of managing the programme and the Maker Bhavan.
• Space — a furnished, well-equipped facility of at least 3,000 sq. ft (preferably 5,000 sq. ft), incorporating a fabrication lab for prototype development, a pitching lounge for engaging mentors and investors, an IPR & Legal Assistance helpdesk, AV-equipped meeting space, and a common co-working area.
• Lab support to a PC is provided for the first year only, and the applicant incubator must justify the equipment requested in detail.
• Signage displaying the DST and NIDHI-PRAYAS logos, with directional information, is mandatory at prominent locations on the host campus.

For an applicant, the practical reading is that the fab lab and the IPR helpdesk are funded deliverables of the centre, not favours. If you are choosing between centres, ask what the Maker Bhavan actually contains, since the equipment was justified to DST line by line.

Why this matters for research administrators

PRAYAS sits at the boundary where an institution’s research output becomes someone’s venture, and that boundary is administratively awkward in three specific ways.

First, the IP-ownership evidence requirement lands on the technology-transfer office, not the applicant. A student or faculty innovator applying with an invention made on institutional premises needs a clear ownership position or a licence in place before the application, and that is an institutional decision with a lead time.

Second, the Rs. 40 lakh cumulative prior-government-funding bar is an institutional data problem. It aggregates across schemes and across programmes, and no individual applicant reliably knows their own total. An office that tracks scheme participation can answer it; one that does not will find applicants disqualified late.

Third, the no-academic-role constraint on the Programme Head and the first-tranche gating are real staffing commitments for any institution considering hosting a centre. The role cannot be quietly absorbed by an existing research-associate line.

Institutions comparing national approaches to the same problem may find the contrast useful with Malaysia’s MRANTI model, which routes university commercialisation through a differently-structured national agency. Further material on commercialisation and startups sits in the technology transfer cluster.

Frequently asked questions

How much is the NIDHI-PRAYAS grant?

Under NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0 the per-innovator maximum is up to Rs. 20 lakh through a PRAYAS Centre (PC) and up to Rs. 40 lakh through an Advance PRAYAS Centre (APC), with the final amount in each case approved by the centre’s PRAYAS Local Monitoring Committee. The older Rs. 10 lakh figure is from PRAYAS 1.0. Confirm the operative figure against the live call published by the centre you are applying to.

Is NIDHI-PRAYAS a fellowship?

No. It is a grant for building a physical prototype, released against milestones, with a working prototype as the expected outcome. The only stipend-like element is an optional sustenance allowance of up to 20 per cent of the approved grant, available only to a PRAYASEE with no other source of income who works on the project full-time.

Do I apply to DST directly?

No. Innovators apply to a designated PRAYAS Centre or Advance PRAYAS Centre through the NIDHI PRAYAS Portal using a common application template. DST’s own application process is the separate one by which incubators apply to become centres.

Is there an age limit for NIDHI-PRAYAS?

The published criterion is a minimum, not a maximum: the applicant must be at least 18 years of age on the date of application, evidenced by passport, Aadhaar or Voter ID.

Do I need a registered company to apply?

No. Individual innovators may apply without forming a registered entity, though grantees are encouraged to incorporate as a DPIIT-registered startup within 6 to 8 months.

Can I apply with a software product?

No. Projects relating to pure software development, e-commerce, service solutions and app-based solutions are ineligible, as is funding for research or student internships in academic institutions. The programme funds physical product development.

Does the incubator take equity in exchange for the grant?

No. The host institution or centre may not mandate equity or IP ownership as a precondition for support, and may not take or hold equity in exchange for any grant-related component including facility use, fabrication or the grant amount. Any separate agreement entered into by mutual consent must state explicitly that it is independent of the grant.

Who owns the IP generated during the project?

Intellectual property generated under NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0 vests with the innovator or startup, unless otherwise agreed through a separate contractual arrangement. Applicants must separately demonstrate clear ownership or a licensed right to use any pre-existing IP underpinning the prototype.

How long does a NIDHI-PRAYAS project run?

The project term is 15 months, extendable by a further 6 months under exceptional circumstances with PLMC approval. Any extension beyond 21 months requires approval from the PRAYAS Management Committee, DST, or its designated subcommittee.

What happens if I miss my milestones?

Support may be discontinued for non-achievement of milestones, misutilisation of funds, or loss of project viability. The decision is taken by the PLMC with proper documentation, unutilised funds may be recovered under the guidelines, and the centre reports the instance to the Programme Management Unit.

Primary sources

Figures and clauses on this page are taken from the NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0 programme guidelines published by DST’s Technology Translation & Innovation Division via the programme’s Programme Management Unit (SINE, IIT Bombay), from the PMU’s innovator-facing criteria at nidhi-prayas.org, and — for the superseded PRAYAS 1.0 figures — from India’s official Science, Technology & Innovation portal. DST’s own programme page is at nidhi.dst.gov.in. Programme parameters change between cycles; verify any figure you intend to rely on against the current call document.