NIDHI is an umbrella scheme for the promotion of
- (a)young and aspiring innovators.
- (b)scientific research.
- (c)primary health care.
- (d)primary education in rural areas.
Correct — A, young and aspiring innovators. NIDHI stands for National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations, and its own portal describes it as an umbrella programme of the Department of Science and Technology for nurturing ideas and innovations, whether knowledge-based or technology-driven, into successful startups. That is the whole arc the scheme is built to carry — from a person with an idea to a company with a product — and the components are laid out along it: PRAYAS puts money and a workshop behind an early prototype, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence support carries an individual through the risky first year, Technology Business Incubators host the young firm, Seed Support funds it, and the Accelerator pushes it to market. The entry-level component even spells the answer out, since PRAYAS is the promotion of young and aspiring innovators at the prototype stage.
- (b)scientific research. — The most tempting wrong option, because the programme sits in the science department. But NIDHI does not fund research; it funds the translation of research and ideas into enterprises. Basic and applied research have their own funding routes, and mixing them up is the mistake this option is fishing for.
- (c)primary health care. — Belongs to a different ministry altogether. Health and family welfare programmes are not run by the Department of Science and Technology, and nothing in the acronym or the scheme touches health delivery.
- (d)primary education in rural areas. — School education is a separate department's business. The word nidhi means a fund or treasure in several Indian languages, which is probably what makes a welfare-sounding option look plausible, but the expansion of the acronym settles it.
India's startup policy has two distinct halves. One is regulatory and financial and runs through the commerce ministry — recognition of startups, tax treatment, the fund of funds. The other is the incubation infrastructure that turns laboratory and campus ideas into firms, and that is what the Department of Science and Technology built through NIDHI, largely inside universities and technical institutions. The components fit together as a pipeline, so a candidate who remembers the pipeline can place any one of them.
Acronym questions are answered by expanding the acronym, and this one gives itself away: developing and harnessing innovations is not research, health or education. The genuinely difficult discrimination is between option (a) and option (b), and the rule to carry is that an umbrella for innovation is about what happens after the science — the prototype, the incubator, the company — while research funding is about the science itself. As of the 2021 exam the components were PRAYAS, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Seed Support, Technology Business Incubators, Accelerator and Centres of Excellence; the portal today also lists inclusive incubators and international exchange programmes, so the list has grown rather than changed direction.
- NIDHI stands for National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations.
- It is an umbrella programme of the Technology Translation and Innovation Division of the Department of Science and Technology.
- Its stated object is nurturing ideas and innovations, knowledge-based and technology-driven, into successful startups.
- Components include PRAYAS, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Seed Support, Technology Business Incubators, Inclusive Technology Business Incubators, Accelerators and Centres of Excellence.
- It is distinct from the startup recognition and tax framework, which is administered by the commerce ministry.
- Reading a Department of Science and Technology scheme as necessarily a research-funding scheme.
- Confusing NIDHI with the commerce ministry's startup framework, or with a Nidhi company under the Companies Act, which is an unrelated financial entity.
- Assuming the Hindi meaning of the name reveals the purpose; here the expansion of the acronym does.
As an expand-the-acronym or identify-the-purpose item, or as a match-the-following pairing innovation schemes with the ministries and bodies that run them.
Atal Innovation Mission is set up under the
- (a) Department of Science and Technology
- (b) Ministry of Labour and Employment
- (c) NITI Aayog
- (d) Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
Answer(c) NITI Aayog
The neighbouring innovation programme, and the reason both are worth learning together. India runs innovation support from two addresses — the science department's incubation umbrella and the mission housed in NITI Aayog — and examiners test whether a candidate can tell which is which.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Atal Innovation Mission has been set up under which one of the following?
- (a)Department of Science and Technology
- (b)NITI Aayog
- (c)Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
- (d)Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Answer(b) NITI Aayog — it is the innovation mission housed in the policy think tank, which is what distinguishes it from the Department of Science and Technology's own incubation programmes.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under India's innovation-support architecture, a Technology Business Incubator principally provides
- (a)long-term research grants to university faculty
- (b)space, mentoring and early support to young technology firms
- (c)export credit to established manufacturers
- (d)scholarships to engineering undergraduates
Answer(b) space, mentoring and early support to young technology firms — incubators are hosted mostly in academic institutions and exist to help a startup survive its first years.