Introduction

The National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), established in 1982 by the Government of India under the aegis of Department of Science & Technology supports various programs on Science, technology and innovation based entrepreneurship, and enables promotion of knowledge driven and technology intensive ventures / startups.

Since the thrust on startup programs through the national iniatives of Start-Up India and Stand-Up India, a new program NIDHI (National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations) has been launched in 2016 which enables innovators and startups to translate their ideas into successful startups. DST nurtures and empowers innovators and startups since their initial phase of startup journey.

Major Objectives of NSTEDB:

• To promote and develop high-end entrepreneurship for S&T manpower as well as self-employment by utilizing S&T infrastructure and by using S&T methods.
• To facilitate and conduct various informational services relating to promotion of entrepreneurship.
• To network agencies of the support system, academic institutions and Research & Development (R&D) organizations to foster entrepreneurship and self-employing using S&T with special focus on backward areas as well.
• Implementation of the NIDHI programs
• To act as a policy advisory body with regard to entrepreneurship.

About NIDHI

National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) is an umbrella programme conceived and developed by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Division (NSTEDB) of DST, Government of India in 2016, for promoting S&T based entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem across the country.The programme works in line with the national priorities and goals and its focus is to build an innovation driven entrepreneurial ecosystem with an objective of national development through wealth and job creation. NIDHI aims to nurture start-ups through scouting, supporting and scaling of innovations. NIDHI is developed keeping in line the new national aspirations and on the basis of DST’s experience of three decades, in promoting innovative start-ups.

Key Components of NIDHI (National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations):The components of NIDHI are designed to support ideators and innovators since their early startup journey and link them to the entire market value chain.

• NIDHI-Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR): Inspiring graduating students to take entrepreneurship by providing fellowship. For more details please visit: http://www.nidhi-eir.in/
• NIDHI-Promotion and Acceleration of Young and Aspiring Technology Entrepreneurs (PRAYAS): Supports innovators and startups to technically and financially from Idea to Prototype stage. For more details please visit : https://www.nidhi-prayas.org/ .
• NIDHI - Inclusive-Technology Business Incubator (iTBI): Program has been rolled out to increase outreach of incubation program in terms of geographies, gender etc. Program guidelines for NIDHIi-TBI are available at https://www.nstedb.com/NIDHI-Inclusive-TBI-Guidelines.pdf0 bytes
• NIDHI-Technology Business Incubator (TBI): Support and nurture knowledge driven innovative start-ups into successful enterprises. Program guidelines for NIDHI-TBI are available at https://www.nstedb.com/New_Programmes/NIDHI-TBI.pdf0 bytes .
• NIDHI-Seed Support Program (SSP): Provides early-stage funding to the potential start-ups with promising ideas / innovations to help them graduate to the next level. Program guidelines for NIDHI-SSP are available at https://www.nstedb.com/New_Programmes/NIDHI-SSS.pdf0 bytes
• NIDHI-Accelerator: Fast tracking a startup through focused intervention. Program guidelines for NIDHI-Accelerator are available at https://www.nstedb.com/New_Programmes/NIDHI-Accelerator.pdf0 bytes
• NIDHI-Center of Excellence (CoE): To create a world class facility to help startups go global. Program guidelines for NIDHI- COEare available at https://www.nstedb.com/New_Programmes/NIDHI-COE-new.pdf0 bytes

In addition to the above, other programs include Training programs, Women Entrepreneurship Promotion programs, Public-Private Partnership, International Collaboration programs, and other special initiatives which are launched from time to time.

Information Dissemination:

• Through its various programs, NSTEDB, DST has established a wide network of more than 160 Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) / NIDHI TBIs and 8 NIDHI Centres of Excellence (NIDHI-COE) across the country. All other schemes of NIDHI are implemented through DST’s strong network of TBIs and CoEs, contributing in development of innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem across the country.

For list of TBIs and CoEs, and more details about other schemes, visit the NSTEDB website : www.nstedb.com

• Publications:
  

  75-Impactful-Startup-DST-Incubation-Program8.24 MB

  75-Promising-Startups-NIDHI-Seed-Support-Program23.94 MB

  75 Promising Startups under NIDHI - PRAYAS5.07 MB

  75 Promising Innovators & Startups under NIDHI-EiR3.33 MB

  CAWACH initiative - Coffee Table Book8.26 MB

• A short film on DST-NIDHI initiative - Start to Scale Startup Supportshowcasing impact of NISHI programs is available at https://youtu.be/kJzaNgyVpf8