The/Nudge Institute is a Bengaluru-based nonprofit action institute with an audacious mission: 'a poverty-free India, within our lifetime.' It partners with governments, markets and civil society to build resilient livelihoods for all, operating across livelihood-ecosystem building and direct livelihood interventions. For social entrepreneurs, it is one of the country's most serious institutional backers.
Its social-innovation engine is the Center for Social Innovation (formerly N/Core), which runs two flagship tracks: an Incubator offering an INR 15 lakh grant plus mentorship for early-stage nonprofits, and an Accelerator with grants up to INR 2 crores for high-potential nonprofits addressing systemic issues. These are grants, not equity — non-dilutive capital for mission-driven organisations, which is rare air in Indian philanthropy.
The portfolio of supported organisations includes names like Karya. Sectors span livelihoods and poverty alleviation, social entrepreneurship, agriculture, skill development and women's economic inclusion. As a philanthropy-backed institute, its 'fund size' is not publicly disclosed — it pays grants to incubatees rather than managing a corpus.
The programme architecture extends well beyond incubation: the Indian Administrative Fellowship (an 18-month programme embedding corporate leaders with government), The/Nudge Prize (annual tech-for-poverty challenges), the charcha annual livelihood convening, plus the Economic Inclusion Program (active across Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal), Asha Kiran and ReFarm. The institute works alongside 15+ central and state government partners. It was founded by Atul Satija.
The institute's Indian Administrative Fellowship — an 18-month programme embedding corporate leaders with government — reveals its theory of change: poverty is a systems problem, and systems change requires operators inside the machinery, not just capital outside it. The annual charcha convening and The/Nudge Prize for tech-for-poverty challenges extend the same logic to ecosystem-building. With 15+ central and state government partners and programmes like the Economic Inclusion Program running across six states, a Nudge-backed nonprofit doesn't just get a grant — it gets a government partnership channel that can take a proven livelihood model from district pilot to state policy. Founded by Atul Satija, the institute operates at a scale few Indian philanthropies attempt.
Why it matters for founders
If you're building a nonprofit or social enterprise tackling livelihoods, agriculture or skilling, The/Nudge's incubator and accelerator offer something almost nobody else does: large non-dilutive grants plus direct government partnership channels. The Rs 15 lakh incubator grant can fund a full pilot; the Rs 2 crore accelerator can scale a proven model. Apply when your theory of change is crisp and your field evidence is real.