NIDHI-EIR (Entrepreneur-in-Residence)

DST fellowship program providing monthly stipends to graduating students and first-time founders pursuing entrepreneurship, enabling them to focus full-time on building their ventures. NIDHI-EIR requires applicants to have at least four years of full-time undergraduate/postgraduate education in science or engineering (or a shorter degree plus two years of work experience), and recipients must commit to the venture full-time, hold no other concurrent remuneration, and register with a host incubator for the entire support period. The stipend is tiered — from a minimum of ₹10,000 up to ₹30,000 per month — reflecting that this is designed as a bridge fellowship to let a founder validate a business idea full-time before seeking seed capital, not a product-development grant.