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ABOUT NIDHI-PRAYAS

National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) is an umbrella programme conceived and developed by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, for nurturing ideas and innovations (knowledge-based and technology-driven) into successful start-ups.

Under this initiative, DST has launched NIDHI – Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring innovators & start-ups (NIDHI-PRAYAS) program. The program caters to idea-stage entrepreneurs with a physical product offering, who require support for prototyping. Under this scheme, the innovators will be facilitated with access to physical infrastructure, technical guidance, fabrication labs, networking, business mentorship etc.

VIT Technology Business Incubator is a PRAYAS Centre under the scheme managed by the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) IIT Bombay, which will act as a Program Management Unit (PMU) of the PRAYAS program.

The lack of support for early stage prototyping in the country has been the cause for many innovators to lose interest in their ventures and there is a definite need to address the gap in the very early stage of idea formation, associated technology development, proof of concept, prototyping, IPR etc.

With NIDHI PRAYAS, young entrepreneurs will have support to develop their technology prototype/product and will be able to approach incubators for scale up and commercialization support. Hence all selected NIDHI-PRAYAS applicants to the VITTBI PRAYAS Centre will be considered for support under the Pre-incubation / Business Incubation support at VITTBI based on the maturity of the idea and execution capability of the applicant.

NIDHI PRAYAS program will provide funding support for converting innovative ideas into prototypes.

To facilitate the conversion of an innovative idea to a Prototype (i2P).
To support in the idea to Market (i2M) journey by providing platforms for prototyping and experimentation that can help make modifications and course corrections in the approaches.
To encourage and generate innovative solutions that can address national and global challenges faced by the society.
To attract new and more number of technology/knowledge/innovation based product start-ups.
To create a feeder of technology start-ups to the incubation program.
Establishing a network between innovators, academia, mentors and incubators, NIDHI PRAYAS is expected to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Benefits
Grant up to Rs.10 lakhs for converting his/ her innovative idea into prototype within 18 months.
Access to infrastructure, prototype development facility and strategic mentorship.
Shared common facilities & Co-working space
who can apply?
Individual innovator: He/She is required to be Indian Citizen at least 18 years of age as on date of application. An Indian citizen is defined as one who is in possession of a government approved proof of nationality such as a valid passport, voter’s id etc.
Team of individual innovator: If the team wants to pursue the project, then there has to be an agreement among the team about the lead applicant and the lead applicant have to apply for NIDHI-PRAYAS. The financial support (after the selection process) will be given to the lead applicant on behalf of the team.
Existing incubatee of VITTBI or other incubators (under co-incubation scheme):-
The period of existence of the Startup and its operations should not exceed 7 years from the Date of Incorporation. The Startup should be involved in the development of a prototype for a new product, for which they should not have received similar kind of support. The annual turnover should not have exceeded Rs. 25 lakhs for any of the financial year since its inception.
Priority
Preference may be given to those innovators
Who have bootstrapped or have got co-investment commitment.
Who have clear road map for commercialization or start up creation.
Women innovators
Young innovators
Grant will not Support
Student applicants pursuing long term research projects like doctoral research projects or similar projects will not be supported
Professors or Academicians engaged in teaching with any academic or R&D institute who do not have the necessary NOC on IP and are not granted sufficient time to work on PRAYAS project from their respective organisation / institution
The projects relating to software development and those involving pure academic research are not eligible.
  • The maximum support can be provided per innovator/incubatee is upto Rs. 10 lakhs.
  • If the innovator is pursuing to build a prototype from their institute/organization IP, then in that case innovator will take NOC from the appropriate authority of their institute/organisation for use/IP transfer / ownership in favour of the innovator/startup.
  • If the applicant is studying /working in an institute/organization, they should get a no objection certificate from that respective institute/organization for applying to NIDHI PRAYAS.
  • The NIDHI-PRAYAS grantee should be registered for the pre-incubation or incubation program at the TBI for the entire duration of the program, after going through the TBI’s selection process.
  • NIDHI-PRAYAS grantee should be fully committed to work towards the prototype development for which the support is being sought and should not treat this as a stop gap arrangement to support any other pursuits.
  • The innovator can avail the NIDHI-PRAYAS support only once and they should not have sought the similar support previously, from other Government of India organisation/Institution for the same innovative concept as proposed in the application form.

    • NIDHI-PRAYAS grant cannot, however, be used for supporting:

    • Any institute/organization (not being a start-up organization) to develop and IP into Prototype.
    • Any innovator working/pertaining to an institute/organization for converting their IP into prototype.
    • Any idea which is part of academic research work carried out at the institute/personal level.
    • Any idea that is developed into prototype where the IP could vest with any institute/organization.

    Focus Areas




    Beneficiaries supported under PRAYAS:

    prayasees Year 2019-20

    Mrutyunjaya Sahu
    Manoeuvring Aeration System for enhancing water quality of waterbodies
    Anmol Saxena
    Fitknees-Intelligent wearable knee device for prevention and rehabilitation of knee injuries
    Charmi Pabari
    Portable Hand Muscle Training Module – aid in motor relearning & giving mobility to stroke patient
    Abhinav Gupta
    CamCann Smart Systems -smart edge computing device to solve the current problems in security
    Goutham Reddy
    Electric vehicle with on board power generation
    Hariharan
    Symbionic - A customizable, intuitive and affordable electro mechanical arm for trans-humeral amputees
    Pranav Kumar
    Athena -a Text-to-Braille/voice device
    Ravi Kiran Manapuram
    In vivo and Invitro fast Tissue Scanner (TissueXaner) for dermatology applications
    Venkatakrishnan
    Development of Cognitive technology to facilitate effective clinical decision-making and service deliver
    Pranjal Mehta
    “Ek Hanz” Autonomous Aerial Hybrid vehicles
    Abhijit Nath
    Automated panipuri vending machines
    V. Harish
    Making baked goods from Beer spent grain

    prayasees Year 2020-21

    T.GEETHA
    Developing probiotic enriched millet based ready to eat fermented products
    PIYUSH BHANU
    Developing food intolerance test kits
    SAURABH AGARWAL
    Construction of paver blocks using waste plastic materials
    SENTHIL RAJENDRAN
    Creating IC packaging ceramic material from coal fly-ash
    SHIVANG SINGH SLATHIA
    Developing wearable smart apparel with water/stain repellent, antimicrobial, UV resistant, breathable and wrinkle-free properties
    Tanmay M Prasad
    Farm Automation and automatic nutrient dosing system for hydroponic farming
    Rajesh Sura
    Developing commercially viable E-Mobility Charging Infrastructure
    Karna Patel
    Developing waterproof wearable Insulin Injectors
    M.S.Sudarsan
    Developing a technology that uses a liquid desiccant air conditioning system for seed storage
    M. Jayasindu
    Personalized Chewing Gums as an after-food balancing nutritional punch to help counter doshas
    Salomi Dabral
    Developing an automated maneuverable device for extracting larger quantity of biomass from water bodies
    Surya M Rajendran
    Developing portable units for dentist sto help set up dental clinics with necessary instruments.
    S.GomathiNayagam
    Developing IoT based shake flasks for bio-pharmaceutical industries, educational institutes and research laboratories.
    PrakharVaishnav
    Building COVID-Free Micro Offices to unlock safe work in INDIA’s offices

    Prayasees Year 2021-22

    Abanis Nayak
    Low Pain Prick: Developing a stand-alone non-chemical based Topical Anaesthetic Inducer (TAI) appliance
    Adharsh.G
    Virtual reality device that will aid in the treatment, training and special education of children with autism
    Arth Chowdhary
    Building custom Ready- to- Fly FPV Drones
    Anup.TV
    Efficient mass degradation of segregated organic Municipal Solid Waste(MSW) and bioremediation of MSW leachate eluted from conventional bin composting, using Hermetia illucens
    Azam Ali
    A hand-held device that connects to smartphone enabling more reliable and efficient tele-consultations by streaming real time prognostic data
    Kavya NS
    Producing Non-dairy specialty food for Geriatric
    Kishore S
    Development of noninvasive portable nano sensing array for Early detection of ovarian cancer using
    Nitheesh P
    Fabrication of Natural Fiber Extraction Machine
    Raghul Senthilnathan
    Development of compact & highly affordable smart fluorescent cell imager
    Raja Rajan
    Producing spray dried powder rich in omega 3 fatty acid from blended oils that can be applied in food and poultry industry
    Prabu.G
    Three-wheeled EV for last mile hyper local delivery service
    Sayantani Basu
    Hologram Communication device which creates see-through 3D in-air display of an image or video.
    Varshini Ram
    A novel system for swarm of co-axial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for collaborative lifting with extended flight time and modularity

    prayasees Year 2022-23

    Sarthak Vaishnav
    Underwater Ship Hull Cleaning Robot
    Naman Gupta
    Functional autonomous golf cart that can be operated in an airport environment
    Mr.Premnivash M
    Smart Stick with a guide band for the visually challenged
    Dr.S. Vidhya
    Autonomous portable CPR Machine
    Merlin KM
    Robotic workstation for upper limb neurological rehabilitation
    Mahesh Londhe
    Millet Disinfestation Unit

    For details, please write to

    The Sr. General Manager,
    VIT Technology Business Incubator,
    Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014
    Email: vittbi.grants@vit.ac.in
    Phone: 0416 2202301 / 2303
    Mob: +91 9566656777 / +91 9443311367