Maker Village Calls for NIDHI Prayas Grants to Hardware Innovators

KOCHI:
Applications have been invited for grants of up to Rs 10 lakh under the NIDHI PRAYAS programme floated by the Union government to boost startup ecosystems across the country.

Hardware startups anywhere in India can apply through Maker Village Kochi for availing the scheme. Spearheaded by the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology, NIDHI Prayas provides support for early-stage innovators, with “Innovate without Fear of Failure” being the motto. The 2019-launched programme creates a vibrant pipeline of innovators for hardware innovation platforms such as Maker Village. As an early-stage support scheme, NIDHI PRAYAS complements and supplements various other programmes being operated at Maker Village to support hardware startups.

Startups that are already beneficiaries of the scheme cannot apply. The applicants should be above the age of 18, running startups that are less than seven years old and with annual turnover of not more than Rs 25 lakh. Applications can be submitted online (https://makervillage.in/nidhiprayasprogram.php) on or before June 20.

Those winning the grants are to come up with a successful prototype. Already 23 startups are enjoying grants under NIDHI Prayas that was launched last year at Maker Village Kochi, the incubator’s CEO Prasad Balakrishnan Nair said. “All of them have come up with their prototypes and are going ahead with their plans successfully,” he added.

As a plan that extends support to startups in pursuit of ideas, National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) has been conceived as an umbrella programme for nurturing knowledge-based and technology-driven ideas and innovations into promising hardware firms. It bridges a gap in the existing innovation infrastructure by supporting early-stage ideas.

The 2016-founded Maker Village is a joint initiative of Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Government of Kerala with IIITM-K (Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala) as the nodal agency.