NIDHI PRAYAS - DERBI Foundation

Ideate... Innovate... Impact...

National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) is an umbrella programme conceived and developed by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, for nurturing ideas and innovations (knowledge-based and technology-driven) into successful start-ups.
The program caters to idea-stage entrepreneurs with a physical product offering and who require support for prototyping.

Objectives

To build a vibrant innovation ecosystem, by establishing a network between innovators, academia, mentors and incubators

To support faster experimentation and idea to market journey

To generate innovative solutions relevant to the local and global problems

To attract a large number of youth who demonstrates problem solving zeal and abilities

To enable translation of an innovative idea to a prototype

Facilitate new technology/knowledge/innovation based startups

Focus Areas

Telemedicine
Point of Care Device
Hospital Automation
AI for Diagnosis
Sports and Wellness

Program Offerings

Prototyping grant
Access to lab incubation space
Deep mentoring
Customer discovery and validation
Scale -up support for select startups

Who Can Apply

Individual innovator: He/she is required to be an Indian Citizen with at least 18 years of age as on the date of application. An Indian citizen is the one who is in possession of a government of India approved proof of nationality such as a valid passport, voter’s id etc.

Existing incubatee of a PRAYAS centre (Incubator): a) The company is less than 2 years and wants to develop the prototype of the product for which they are incubated and for which they may have not received similar kind of support. b) Company should have no significant revenue at the time of application.
Team of individual innovators: If the team wants to pursue a project, then there has to be an agreement among the team about the lead applicant and the lead applicant has to apply for NIDHI-PRAYAS. The financial support (after the selection process) will be given to the lead applicant on behalf of the team.
Preference will be given to those innovators
1. Who have raised a portion of the project cost themselves or have secured co-investment commitment.
2. Who have a clear road map for commercialization or start up creation.

Among the innovators who are applying for NIDHI – PRAYAS satisfying all the requirements, preference will be given to Women innovators and Young innovators.

The applicants will have to become an incubate of the TBI fulfilling the admission criteria so as to avail the benefits.

Restrictions to apply for the Scheme

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.
The project should involve physical product development. The projects relating to software development and those involving pure academic research are not eligible.

The following also cannot be supported under PRAYAS Scheme:

Any institute/organization (not being a start-up company) to develop an IP into prototype.
Any innovators working/pertaining to an institute/organization for converting their IP into prototype.
Any idea that is developed into prototype where the IP could vest with any institute/organization.

Disclaimer

The applications received under the program, are subject to due diligence of screening process. Only shortlisted participants will be notified/ informed about the final presentation to the monitoring committee.
Screening will be subject to the parameters other than the eligibility, such as Innovation, Potential for commercialization and venture creation, Team capability and Commitment etc.
The decision of the screening committee for approval and funding support will be final, firm and binding.
The final decision of screening committee will be communicated only to the approved applicants via email.
The approved applicants will have to agree for Pre incubation/ Incubation with DERBI as per its incubation policy/terms.
Screening of applications will take 6-8 weeks, from the date of closure of online applications. Only selected candidates will be notified. No communication from DERBI Foundation within the timeframe may be deemed as non-selection of your application for the program.
DERBI will not provide any suggestion/explanation with regards to the application that are not selected.

NIDHI PRAYASEES Cohort 1

Velmurugan E	Breath analyser sensor ODM module which can be integrated to Ventilators A working prototype that can measure 1. etCO2 2. respiratory rate 3. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide 4. Partial pressure 5. Exhaled volume
Arun Somasundaram	Low cost bone densitometer – To estimate bone density
Akshita Sachdeva	The smart, non invasive, handheld Colposcopy device for quick and automated Cervical Cancer Screening and Diagnosis
Dr Maneesh Sinha	We integrate existing inexpensive bipolar cautery with vibrating mechanical dissection. Plasma button is used as tip of finger. Short learning curve for surgeon as it integrates into existing procedure
Dr. Vishal U S Rao	Handsfree voice prosthesis speaking device for throat cancer patients
Dr. U Ganesh Rao	Indigenous low cost intra oral 3d scanner • to make non invasive dentistry affordable and convenient for the elderly
Kishore Kumar K J	Ensuring proper hand washing without touching the soap and water. Automatics hand wash dispenser
Mandhar	Point of care device for quantification of UTI infections.UTI infections invariably involve secretion of virulence factors which involves signaling through quorum sensing (QS). Homoserine lactone (HSL) – auto inducer for QS can be detected using it’s reaction with bound catalyst on media.
Akitha Kolloju	It is measuring vital parameters of a baby struggling from jaundice conditions and dosage of treatment coming from any device connected to the baby.
Veena Venu	Birth buddy is a portable birthing bed which has a potential to save two lives at once. It is the first of its kind portable delivery bed with unique features of light weight, compact size, portability, foldability and convertibility to eight different positions.
Siddharth Nair	Xfinito Biodesigns is developing a series of smart footwear based on our platform Xeuron, which aims to provide monitoring progression, diagnosis, and treatment for degenerative nerve disorders.

Program Partners

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