Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Aug 3: Govt of India has launched an umbrella program “NIDHI” (National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing innovations) to foster innovation among the StartUps in the country.
This information was shared by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh in the Rajya Sabha today.
In reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that NIDHI program has various components to support innovations, StartUps as well as StartUp incubation ecosystem in the country.
The NIDHI- PRAYAS (Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring Innovators and Startups) program at Proof-of-Concept level provides mentoring and financial support to innovators for converting their ideas into prototypes. NIDHI Entrepreneurs-In-Residence (EIR) Program provides fellowships to the students opting for entrepreneurship. The NIDHI Seed Support Program provides availability of early-stage seed support funding to startups and the NIDHI Accelerator program speeds up the investment readiness of the startups.
The NIDHI program has been helpful in creating state-of-the-art infrastructure for incubating StartUps in technology sectors through Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) and Centres of Excellence (CoE).
The Minister also underlined that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is playing an active role in conceptualising and developing state-of-the-art Incubation facilities for translating technology & products and handholding entrepreneurs, start-ups, and MSMEs so as to ensure the transfer of the benefit of S&T interventions to the Society, Industry and the Country.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, CSIR today is one of the leading R&D organizations in the country to set up Incubation Centres across its labs using innovative models/approaches. In addition to the above, few Common Research and Technology Development Hubs (CRTDHs) for industrial R&D innovation, dedicated for MSMEs, start-ups and individual innovators have also been set up at CSIR with the support of DSIR.
Dr Jitendra Singh underlined that through CSIR incubation centres, 300 startups/Incubatees have been supported so far.
The progress made through BIRACs incubation program include setting up of 75 Incubation Centres supported through BIRAC’s BioNEST and E-YUVA (Empowering Youth for Undertaking Value Added Innovative Translational Research) schemes of BIRAC across 21 states & UTs of the country, around 900 innovative projects supported under Biotech Ignition Grant (BIG).
DST is supporting TBIs/STEPs primarily in and around academic, research, technical and management institutes to tap innovations and technologies for startup creation. The program helps in creating expertise and S&T entrepreneurial infrastructure at the Host Institute. DST extends holistic end to end support from ideation to POC, Incubation to seed funding, by providing a strong platform for innovators and researchers, S&T faculties and entrepreneurs to form innovative startups.
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