NIDHI PRAYAS Promoting and Accelerating Young and ASpiring Innovators
Funds NIDHI PRAYAS to help Indian innovators move hardware ideas toward prototypes through grant support in PRAYAS centres.
NIDHI PRAYAS Promoting and Accelerating Young and ASpiring Innovators sits under the Department of Science and Technology (DST, India) as part of the NIDHI innovation stack. It is the prototype-oriented companion to NIDHI EIR, and it is built for hardware and deep-tech innovators who are still at the idea-to-prototype stage. The program is active in India, follows an annual cycle, and routes support through PRAYAS centres so that applicants get both funding and an execution path. The instrument is a grant of INR 10 lakh per innovator. Indian registration and operations are the geographic anchor, with individuals excluded and venture-style applicants expected to come through an eligible entity. This is a fixed prototype budget rather than a scale-up line, so the financial purpose is to buy experimentation, build a first version, and reach something tangible enough to test. The strongest applications are usually those with a sharp technical idea, a clear reason the prototype is still missing, and a practical plan for how the grant will move the work from concept to build. Because the scheme is tied to PRAYAS centres, applicants do better when they can show that the centre adds real delivery value, not just a mailing address for the proposal.
No upcoming rounds verified. Cadence: Annual.