The eligibility criteria for the grantees are as follows:

• A) Individual innovator: He/she is required to be an Indian Citizen and at least 18 years of age as on the date of the application. An Indian citizen is defined as one who is in possession of government-approved proof of nationality such as a valid passport or a voter’s ID.
• B) He/she is an existing incubatee of a PRAYAS centre then:
  • The company must be less than 7 years old and wishing to develop a prototype for a new product, for which it may have not received similar support.
  • The company must have no significant revenue at the time of application.
• C) Team of innovators: Individual Innovator OR Team of Innovators: The innovator should have the knowhow of the PRAYAS project. For a team of innovators, there has to be an agreement among the team about the lead innovator who would apply, and the funds will be transferred to the lead innovator’s account (if selected).
  • The project should involve physical product development. Projects related to software development and those involving pure academic research are not eligible.
  • Preference may be given to those innovators
    • Innovators who have bootstrapped or have got co-investment commitment.
    • Innovators who have a clear road map for commercialisation or start-up creation.
    • Women innovators.
    • Young innovators.
  • The maximum support that can be provided per innovator/incubatee is up to Rs 10 lakhs.
  • If the innovator is pursuing to build a prototype from their institute/organisation IP, then he/she needs to get a no-objection certificate from the appropriate authority of their institute/organisation for the use/IP transfer/ownership in favour of the innovator/startup.
  • If the applicant is studying /working in an institute/organisation, they should get a no-objection certificate from that institute/organisation for applying to NIDHI-PRAYAS.
  • The NIDHI-PRAYAS grantee should be registered for the pre-incubation or incubation programme at the Technology Business Indicator (TBI) for the entire duration of the programme, after going through the TBI’s selection process.
  • The NIDHI-PRAYAS grantee should be fully committed to working towards the prototype development for which 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 similar support previously from any other Government of India organisations/institutions for the same innovative concept as proposed in the application form. 

NOT ELIGIBLE FOR PRAYAS

• 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.

BENEFITS TO NIDHI-PRAYAS RECIPIENTS (PRAYASEE)

• A prototype grant for up to Rs 10 lakhs to build their ideas into a prototype.
• Mentorship, networking, and participation in various startup/entrepreneurship-based events.
• Co-working spaces for developing ideas into a prototype.
• Access to labs and libraries.

TERMS OF ASSOCIATION & DESIRED OUTCOMES

• The total amount disbursed will be up to a maximum of Rs 10 lakhs.
• The project term for the PRAYASEE will be up to 18 months. At the end of 18 months, the progress review shall be done by the local PRAYAS monitoring committee at VentureStudio and based on the decision of the PRAYAS monitoring committee the project term of the PRAYASEE may be extended by 6 months.