NITI Aayog

Choosing the right programme

• Startups with a working prototype in a technology area should look at the Atal New India Challenge first, when its call is open.
• Early-stage founders who want an incubator place should check the Atal Incubation Centres. AIM's portal for them was not open when checked.
• Community innovators aged 18 to 35 with a degree or diploma should look at the Community Innovator Fellowship.
• Deep-tech teams and faculty entrepreneurs should note that AIM-PRIME closed on 30 May 2021 and check AIM's site for later rounds.

How applications work

• The Atal New India Challenge takes applications only through its online portal, during the call period.
• AIM's pages give no call dates for the Atal New India Challenge, so check the portal before you plan around a deadline.
• AIM's Atal Community Innovation Centres page and an AIM notice disagree on whether applications are open, so confirm with AIM before applying.
• The RISE Accelerator asks you to express interest through the link on its page. No window is shown yet.

How selection works

• The Atal New India Challenge selects startups first, then releases funding in tranches tied to milestones.
• AIM-iLEAP selects startups on the basis of their investible stage.

What reviewers look for

• A working prototype is a stated requirement for the Atal New India Challenge, not a bonus.
• More than 51% of the company's stake held in India is a stated requirement for the Atal New India Challenge.

NITI Aayog is the Government of India's policy think tank, set up by a Union Cabinet resolution on 1 January 2015. Its work with startups runs mainly through the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), one of its attached and autonomous bodies, which runs incubators, grant challenges, fellowships and school-level labs.

How programmes work

The Atal New India Challenge is AIM's grant mechanism for technology innovations at the prototype stage. Selected startups receive grant-in-aid in tranches tied to milestones, and are supported through to commercialisation. AIM describes the challenge as supporting innovators to build products and solutions based on advanced technologies in areas of national importance and social relevance. AIM's pages give the funded period as 12 to 18 months on the programme page and 12 to 24 months in the guidelines, so check the guidelines before planning a timeline.

The Atal Incubation Centres are incubators set up at universities, institutions and corporates. The Atal Community Innovation Centres aim to encourage entrepreneurship in underserved and unserved regions of India. The Community Innovator Fellowship, run with UNDP India, is a one-year programme for community innovators.

AIM has also run accelerators and challenges with partners. These include the AIM-ICDK water challenge with Innovation Centre Denmark, the AIM-iLEAP programme with the accelerator Startup Réseau, the AIM-PRIME deep-tech training programme, and the Youth Co:Lab challenge with UNDP India, which was launched in India in 2019. Several of these calls are closed. The India-Australia RISE Accelerator is listed as launching soon, and the Atal Incubation Centre portal was not open when AIM's site was checked in October 2026. The same notice covers the Atal Tinkering Lab and Atal Community Innovation Centre portals.

AIM's pages do not state fees or equity terms for most of its programmes, so this page does not give them either. Check each programme's page before applying.

Who can apply

Entry rules depend on the programme. The Atal New India Challenge takes Indian companies incorporated under the Companies Act that are recognised as startups by DPIIT, have a working prototype, and hold more than 51% of their stake in India. The Community Innovator Fellowship takes community innovators aged 18 to 35 who hold a bachelor's, diploma or degree from a recognised university. The ICDK challenge had two tracks: students enrolled at Indian universities, and young entrepreneurs whose business started within the last two to five years. Youth Co:Lab was for youth-led startups aged 18 to 29, extended to 32 for marginalised groups, including persons with disabilities.

Scale

AIM's homepage shows self-reported counters with no date and no stated period. They show 72 Atal Incubation Centres, 14 Atal Community Innovation Centres, 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs, 24 Atal New India Challenges run, more than 3,500 startups supported and more than 32,000 jobs created. They also show more than 11 million students engaged in Atal Tinkering Labs and 40 or more domestic and international partnerships. The counters do not say which startups or jobs they count.

Atal Tinkering Labs are set up in schools and serve students, not founders. They are part of AIM's work, but they are not a route for startups.

Who runs it

NITI Aayog is a government body. AIM describes its purpose as creating and promoting a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country. AIM is led by a Mission Director within NITI Aayog, and its feedback and query contact is a role inbox at a government domain.

Locations

The correspondence address for AIM is NITI Aayog, Sansad Marg, New Delhi. AIM's homepage says its first international Atal Incubation Centre is at IIT Abu Dhabi.