NaaViC, ICAR-NIVEDI

Pick the right programme first

NaaViC runs seven separate offers and they do not overlap much, so choose by where you are:

• You have an idea and no prototype yet: NEO. It is built for students, young people and research scholars, and the work is taking the idea as far as a prototype.
• You are a registered startup with a prototype: NEST. Its stated job is moving a minimum viable product to a marketable stage and scaling it.
• You are early stage but not ready for NEST: NEXUS, the pre-incubation programme.
• You mainly need space: NOVICE, which offers physical or virtual incubation space.
• You are a small business or micro enterprise: NOVABEE.
• You are a student innovator: NU-ZEN.
• You work specifically in animal health and production: watch for the KSHITIJ call for business proposals.

What NaaViC is actually for

The centre sits inside a veterinary epidemiology institute, and its focus areas and portfolio are weighted towards animal health, livestock, diagnostics, feed and allied agri processing. A proposal that uses the institute's real strengths — disease diagnostics, livestock data, biosafety-level lab work, epidemiology and disease mapping — has an obvious home here. A general software or consumer idea with no agri or animal link does not.

How applications work

Each programme's Apply Now button on the Programs page opens its own application; there is no common login or shared form. Fill the one for the programme you picked. NEO and NEST applications are handled on an external application service, so expect to create an account there.

NaaViC publishes no deadlines, no intake calendar and no selection process, and its listings say only that applications are invited. Treat the application page itself as the source of truth for dates and criteria, and call the centre before you start if the page looks stale. Its two phone numbers are on the contact page.

One thing to check before you apply: the animal health and production call appears under two slightly different spellings on two different pages, pointing at two different application forms. Confirm which one is live.

What to have ready

Nothing about required documents is published, so prepare what any agri-business incubator will ask for: what the product is and what problem it solves, how far it has been built and tested, who the team is, what you want to do during the programme, and — for NEST — proof that the company is registered, since that programme is described as being for registered startups.

Because NEST's own aims are written in terms of a minimum viable product reaching a marketable stage, be concrete about what stage yours is at and what the next testable step is. NEO is judged on the idea and the person, so lead with the innovation and why you are the one to build it.

Costs and terms

NaaViC says only that charges for incubatees are nominal and as per guidelines. It does not publish a fee schedule, and it does not say anywhere whether it takes equity in incubatees. Ask both questions in writing before you sign anything.

After you apply

Proposals go through the centre's own committees — an advisory panel with industry, technical, business, investment and IPR members, and an implementation committee chaired by the institute's Director. Expect your proposal to be read by people who know both the veterinary science and the business side, and write it so it stands up to both.

NaaViC is the agri-business incubation centre of ICAR-NIVEDI, the National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics, in Bengaluru. It was set up on the institute's Yelahanka campus on 31 January 2019 and backs founders across agriculture and allied sectors, with a stated specialisation in animal science and veterinary services. NaaViC says it is the implementing partner for the RKVY-RAFTAAR scheme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, and that it is also supported by ICAR-NAIF and DST-TEDP.

What it supports

NaaViC lists twelve focus areas: animal husbandry, nutrition and breeding, biotechnology, agri and vet services, post-harvest technology, food processing technology, livestock management, waste to wealth, mechanisation in agriculture, fisheries, agri and vet tools, and IT and IoT in agriculture. Its published portfolio matches that spread, running from mastitis diagnostics and livestock sensors to arecanut dehusking machines and biodegradable packaging.

The centre works at two stages it names explicitly. One is the ideapreneur taking an idea to a prototype, which is the audience for its NEO programme. The other is a registered startup moving a prototype to commercialisation, which is what NEST is for. Around those it also lists support for pre-incubation, for small businesses and micro enterprises, and for student innovators, so the range reaches from a student with an idea to a company already selling.

Programmes

NEO, Nurturing Entrepreneurs through Orientation, is the orientation programme. It is open to students, young people and research scholars with an innovative idea they want to take to a prototype. Selected participants get grant support, an internship with an existing startup, forty hours of specialised training and mentoring from industry experts.

NEST, Nurturing Entrepreneurs with Sustainable Technologies, is the startup incubation programme. It is for agri startups with a scalable business model, and its stated aims are seed support for incubatees, moving a minimum viable product to a marketable stage, and giving teams room to experiment and change the product quickly. It carries grant support, six weeks of incubation training, mentoring and technical business support. NaaViC describes NEO and NEST as the two sub-components it runs under RKVY-RAFTAAR.

Four smaller offers sit alongside them. NEXUS is a pre-incubation programme for early-stage startups. NOVICE is incubation space, physical or virtual, with mentoring and resources attached. NOVABEE is incubation support for small businesses and micro enterprises getting started. NU-ZEN is entrepreneurial support for student innovators. None of these four publishes its benefits, length or selection criteria.

KSHITIJ is a call for business proposals from agri entrepreneurs and startups working in animal health and production. Its name is spelt inconsistently across the site and the two pages point at two different application forms, so check which one is current before applying.

Facilities

NaaViC has about 5,000 sq ft of incubation area inside the ICAR-NIVEDI campus. Beyond its own space, incubatees get access to the institute's laboratories. These include a disease informatics lab set up for livestock population and disease outbreak data, meteorological and remote sensing data, disease modelling, forecasting and risk mapping, with statistical, GIS and epidemiology software installed. There is a biosafety lab at BSL2+ containment, a GIS and bio-informatics lab used for disease mapping, risk prediction, molecular epidemiology, homology modelling and docking, an institute library covering veterinary and animal sciences, and a guest house on campus. The centre also lists high-speed internet.

On the services side NaaViC lists mentoring, individually and in groups, national and international networking, promotional and branding support, regulatory and advisory services, intellectual property support covering patents and copyright, and capacity-building training. Its own answer on fees is only that charges for incubatees are nominal and as per guidelines, so ask before you assume a programme is free.

Track record

The figures below are NaaViC's own, published on its home page. It reports 2,700 applications received, 75 startups incubated, 6,080 direct jobs created and 17,000 entrepreneurs trained. It also counts 113 bootcamps, 39 webinars, 12 entrepreneurship development programmes and 23 collaborations. Its history page runs a cohort a year or two from the first in 2020 to a tenth in 2025, while the portfolio page carries tabs through an eighth cohort.

That portfolio names 45 companies with their founders, business ideas and cities. Most are in Bengaluru and elsewhere in Karnataka, with others in Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Mumbai.

Who runs it

NaaViC is chaired by the Director of ICAR-NIVEDI and run day to day by a PI-CEO with two co-PIs, supported by a business team of a business manager, an assistant business manager, a business executive, a technical assistant and support staff. Two committees sit above it. The ABI advisory members bring an industry expert from Biovet, a technical expert from IBAB, a business consultant, an investment expert from Kankadhara Agri Innovation and an IPR expert from the IPR cell at AIISH Mysore. A separate R-ABI implementation committee, chaired by the institute's Director, oversees delivery.

Its partners section lists institutions it works with, among them MANAGE Hyderabad, the Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre, DERBI Foundation, Karnataka Science and Technology Academy and a number of Karnataka engineering colleges and universities.

How to apply

There is no single portal. Each programme card on the NaaViC Programs page carries its own Apply Now button that opens that programme's own application. NEO and NEST go to one external application service, the four smaller programmes to simple online applications, and KSHITIJ to a separate proposal system. NaaViC does not publish intake dates, deadlines, a selection process or an evaluation panel for any of them, so the application itself is where you will find the current terms. Its Media and News page repeats the open calls and carries the half-yearly newsletter, the latest covering October 2025 to March 2026, which is the best place to see what the centre has been running lately.

NaaViC is at the first floor of the ICAR-NIVEDI campus, Ramagondanahalli, Yelahanka, Bengaluru 560119, and its contact page lists two phone numbers and a message form. There is no careers page on the site.