NIDHI-PRAYAS 2.0 — Prototype Grants of ₹20 Lakh, ₹40 Lakh for Deep-Tech
Money to build the first working prototype
PRAYAS — Promotion and Acceleration of Young and Aspiring Technology Entrepreneurs — is DST's pre-incubation grant. Version 2.0, with programme guidelines issued in March 2026, funds innovators and early-stage startups to turn a technology idea into a functional prototype. It is deliberately upstream of seed funding: the question it answers is whether the thing can be built at all.
The scheme is delivered through incubators appointed as PRAYAS Centres. A standard centre receives up to ₹2 crore a year from DST and can grant up to ₹20 lakh per innovator; an Advance PRAYAS Centre, set up for deep-tech, receives up to ₹4 crore a year and can grant up to ₹40 lakh. The centre's PRAYAS Local Monitoring Committee approves each grant and its amount.
What the grant covers
| Centre type | Ceiling per innovator | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| PRAYAS Centre (PC) | Up to ₹20 lakh | Technology-based innovations |
| Advance PRAYAS Centre (APC) | Up to ₹40 lakh | Deep-tech — hardware, materials, bio, AI systems and similar |
- •Prototype development costs: components, fabrication, testing, outsourced work
- •Access to the centre's maker space, labs and equipment
- •Mentoring and technical guidance from the host institution
- •No equity taken and no repayment; the grant is released in tranches against progress
Department and centres
DST's NIDHI programme funds and oversees the scheme through a programme management unit. Individual grants are approved by the PRAYAS Local Monitoring Committee of the centre you apply to. Incubators themselves are appointed through separate calls — the most recent, for new PCs and APCs, ran from 19 May to 30 June 2026.
Individuals and young startups
Individual innovator
- •Indian citizen with a technology idea
- •No registered company needed
- •Willing to work with the centre for the project term
Startup
- •DPIIT-recognised and incorporated in India
- •Not more than five years old
- •Turnover never above ₹1 crore in any financial year
What goes with the application
- •Aadhaar and PAN of the innovator; for a startup, Certificate of Incorporation and DPIIT recognition
- •Audited or provisional financials establishing that turnover has never crossed ₹1 crore
- •Technical proposal on the common NIDHI-PRAYAS template: problem, proposed solution, novelty, prototype plan
- •Budget with bill of materials, fabrication and testing costs, and a timeline with milestones
- •Team profiles and any prior work, publications or patents
- •Declaration of other government support received for the same idea
- •Undertaking to reside or work at the centre for the duration, where the centre requires it
Questions innovators ask about PRAYAS
No. Individual innovators are explicitly eligible. Many centres encourage incorporation during the project, but it is not a condition of the grant.
No. Those are ceilings. The centre's monitoring committee fixes the amount against your budget, and disbursement is milestone-based.
Usually yes, for different purposes. Declare it. Some state schemes cap total prior government support, and PRAYAS counts toward such caps.
Successful PRAYAS projects commonly graduate to NIDHI Seed Support or BIRAC's BIG, both of which expect a working prototype. PRAYAS is the on-ramp.