What are Grants? 

Our seeds were sown back in 2002 as an entrepreneurship centre at IIM Ahmedabad. In 2007-08, the first piece in the CIIE.CO continuum was truly born when we launched and incorporated our technology business incubator. Since then we have been building the innovation continuum bit-by-bit as we have diversified into entrepreneurship research and publications, accelerators, venture funds, learning tools, innovation partnerships, and a lot more. Set up at IIM Ahmedabad as a Centre of Excellence with support from the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology and Government of Gujarat, this CIIE.CO is the epicentre of The Innovation Continuum.

This grant helps startups raise money from VCs, government funds, and angel investors, among others. Selected startups are connected with accelerators, are mentored and are assisted in forming strategic partnerships with Nasscom’s network.

Sparsh is the Social Innovation programme for Products: Affordable & Relevant to Societal Health. The programme is initiated by BIRAC under the aegis of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India. The programme aims at promoting the development of innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. The scheme will tackle major social issues and offer new ideas for widespread change. The scheme aims to invest in ideas and innovations that improve health care of all Indians and encourage affordable product development in the social sector. The scheme intends to create a pool of social innovators in the biotech arena who will identify the specific needs and gaps in healthcare. The social innovators will be provided financial and technical support for developing market-based solutions that have potential to bring cost effective health care breakthroughs to vulnerable populations in particular.

Students Innovations for Translation & Advancement of Research Explorations (SITARE) Scheme is aimed at supporting innovative student projects in the area of biotechnology. The scheme’s mandate is to promote and encourage young students for embracing translational research (defined under Section 4) to develop innovative products and technologies addressing unmet needs. The scheme has two components: SITARE-Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award Grant (SITARE-GYTI) and SITARE-Appreciation Grant

The scheme is aimed at supporting ideas that address a well-defined problem of industrial relevance. The proposal, therefore, shall be jointly designed and implemented by the academic partner (which includes a partner from national laboratories/recognized R&D institutions as the case may be) and industry. The participating industry should ensure that the objectives are industrially relevant. Routine proposals that address conventional problems and those not related to industry, or with already established approaches are not encouraged.

SAMRIDH scheme, which stands for Startup Accelerators of MeitY for Product Innovation, Development, and growth, on August 25, 2021 has been designed to provide funding support to startups along with helping them bring skill sets together which will help them grow successful. The newly launched SAMRIDH program aims to focus on the acceleration of around 300 start-ups by extending them with customer connect, investor, connect, and other opportunities for international expansion in the upcoming three years that will follow.

This scheme promotes Intellectual Property Rights Awareness Workshops and Seminars. This scheme aims to sensitize and spread awareness about Intellectual Property Rights among various stakeholders, especially in the Electronics & Information Technology sector

The Small Business Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI) scheme of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology was launched in 2005 to boost Public-Private- Partnership (PPP) efforts in the country. SBIRI was the first of its kind, early stage, innovation focused PPP initiative in the area of Biotechnology. Launching of SBIRI has worked as an enabling platform for the target organizations to realize their potential in terms of product and process development and taking them to the market. It has facilitated innovation, risk taking by small and medium companies and bringing together the private industry, public institutions and the government under one roof to promote the research and innovation in the Indian Biotech Sector. The projects supported under the scheme have resulted in prominent outcomes in the form of some products which have already come to the market and some promising research leads seeing ray of hope for commercialization.

The objective of the Stand-Up India scheme is to facilitate bank loans between  10 lakh and  1 Crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise. This enterprise may be in manufacturing, services, agri-allied activities or the trading sector In case of non-individual enterprises at least 51% of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by either an SC/ST or Woman entrepreneur.

This scheme by SIDBI aims to provide technical backstopping and support MSME clients for reducing their power & fuel cost.SIDBI launched the 4E Intervention on the occasion of “World Environment Day” on June 5, 2014.

The Australian Alumni Grants Fund (AAGF) is an activity under the Australian Alumni in Vietnam Strategy and administered by Aus4Skills. The AAGF has been established to fund proposals from Vietnamese alumni of Australian education institutions to consolidate their professional knowledge and skills; contribute to organisational and institutional change in selected Vietnamese government, private sector, civil society and other partner organisations; and strengthen linkages between Australia and Vietnam. Four previous grant rounds implemented by Aus4Skills have supported Australian Alumni in Vietnam to deliver projects in selected priority areas.

One of the most popular government schemes for women entrepreneurs, the Mahila Udyam Nidhi Scheme, is offered by Punjab National Bank and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). The scheme supports women entrepreneurs to set up a new small-scale venture by extending loans up to Rs. 10 lakh to be repaid in 10 years. The rate of interest charged depends upon the market rates.

In order to encourage small businesses to experiment with new and innovative designs for their goods, the Ministry of MSME established the Design Clinic scheme to create a sustainable design eco system through ongoing training and skill development. U

The SIP-EIT scheme was launched by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (“DeiTY”) with the aim of providing government funding to technology startups and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (“MSME”) in India for filing international patents. This encourages innovation, builds brand recognition, and recognizes the importance and potential of having global intellectual property protection.

The purpose of this scheme is to help Artisians and Craftpersons in meeting their working capital (making products as per the demand in the market) and fixed  capital requirement (machineries, equipments and tools).

The  Government of India under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has initiated the Venture Capital Funds scheme to promote entrepreneurship and to provide financial assistance for the Backward Class (BC) entrepreneurs. The Industrial Finance Corporation of India will act as Sponsor, Settler and Asset Management Company (AMC) or Nodal Agency to implement the scheme. Under this scheme, assistance up to Rs.5 crores for a period up to 8 years will be provided to Backward class entrepreneurs. In this article, we look at the Venture Capital Funds for Backward class entrepreneurs in detail.

Udgam is a program to enable innovators and entrepreneurs pursue a promising idea, establish and validate proof of concept (POC) and support commercialization. HPCL wishes to help innovators and entrepreneurs or projects having established proof of concept (POC) to eventual commercialization / implementation.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an apex development bank in India. The Government of India announced the creation of the Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund under NABARD in the Union Budget of 2017-18 for the sustained benefit of farmers.

Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) aims to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialization. This would enable these startups to graduate to a level where they will be able to raise investments from angel investors or venture capitalists or seek loans from commercial banks or financial institutions.1,000 crores approx, however The reserved fund for the Startup India Seed Fund initiative, as per the Union Budget of 2022 is Rs 283.5 crore, which is higher than the revised estimate of around Rs 100 crore for the year 2021-22

This mission seeks to motivate manufacturers to create better products, have zero defects and high quality, as the name suggests. It is a handholding scheme that provides an opportunity to MSMEs to embrace world-class manufacturing processes, use new technology and consistently improve their products.