Number of incubators in India: what the official counts say

Ask how many incubators India has and you will get five different answers, each correct for its own scheme. None of them is a national total, and adding them together gives a number that is too big.

This note sets out the official counts, scheme by scheme, with the date each was published, then explains why the lists overlap. For how incubators are built in the first place, see our guide to starting an incubation centre in a college.

How many incubators are there in India?

There is no single official count. Each ministry counts the incubators in its own scheme. The main figures are 72 Atal Incubation Centres, 175+ NIDHI technology business incubators, 74 BioNEST bio-incubators, 219 Seed Fund Scheme incubators and 517+ incubators in MeitY's startup hub network.

Scheme	Run by	Incubators	As of
Atal Incubation Centres	AIM, NITI Aayog	72	Jun 2026
NIDHI TBIs	DST	175+	Jan 2026
MeitY Startup Hub network	MeitY	517+	Dec 2025
BioNEST	DBT, BIRAC	74	Nov 2026
Seed Fund Scheme	DPIIT	219	Jun 2026

The dates are publication or as-of dates, so they don't line up. Each count is explained below, with its source.

How many Atal Incubation Centres are there?

The government's latest figure is 72 Atal Incubation Centres, which have supported over 6,700 startups and helped create more than 32,000 jobs. It comes from a government backgrounder of June 2026. AIM, part of NITI Aayog, offers each centre a grant of up to Rs 10 crore over a maximum of five years.

The count is in the June 2026 backgrounder, and the grant terms are on AIM's Atal Incubation Centres page. The same page sets out a separate grant of up to Rs 10 crore for established incubation centres.

How many NIDHI technology business incubators has DST backed?

DST's NIDHI programme has backed 175+ technology business incubators, according to a government backgrounder of January 2026. The same document says NIDHI has supported 12,000+ startups, generated 1,30,000+ jobs and produced 1100+ pieces of intellectual property since it began in 2016.

NIDHI is an umbrella with several parts, set out in the January 2026 backgrounder:

• NIDHI-TBI: incubators hosted by an academic or research institution. DST's NIDHI-TBI page says each can usually incubate at least 30 ventures at a time.
• NIDHI-iTBI: inclusive incubators, mostly in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
• NIDHI-SSS: seed support of up to Rs 1000 lakh to an incubator and Rs 100 lakh per startup.
• NIDHI-PRAYAS: prototype grants of up to Rs 10 lakh.

How many incubators does MeitY support?

The MeitY Startup Hub counts more than 517 incubators in its network, along with 6,148+ startups and over 329 labs, as of December 2025. Its TIDE 2.0 scheme channels support through a smaller set of 51 incubators for ICT startups. The two figures measure different things.

Both figures are in the January 2026 backgrounder. The 517 is a network: the hub connects incubation centres, centres of excellence and other bodies supported by MeitY. It is not a count of incubators MeitY funds directly. The 51 under TIDE 2.0 is the closer measure of direct support.

How many biotech incubators does India have?

BIRAC's BioNEST page says it has supported 74 bio-incubators, with 3157 incubatees. A Lok Sabha reply of 30 July 2025 put the wider figure at 94 biotech incubators across 25 States and UTs, because it counted two schemes, BioNEST and E-YUVA, together.

The first figure is on BIRAC's BioNEST page, last updated on 1 November 2026. The second was reported by BioVoice News, which also said Rs 489.42 crore had been allocated for them since 2012.

Why do the incubator counts overlap?

The counts overlap because schemes fund institutions, not exclusive centres. One university can host an Atal Incubation Centre, a NIDHI incubator and a bio-incubator at once, and each scheme counts it. The Seed Fund Scheme then mostly picks incubators that other schemes already back.

Add the five headline figures and you get 1,057, on our arithmetic. That number counts some institutions two or three times, so it is not the number of incubators in India. Four things drive the overlap:

1. Common hosts. Large campuses and research bodies often run centres under several schemes.
2. Scheme rules. The Seed Fund Scheme guidelines require an incubator to have been assisted by a central or state government, or to meet stricter tests.
3. Networks, not grants. MeitY's 517+ is a hub membership, which can include centres funded by others.
4. Cumulative counts. "Backed" and "supported" figures add up over a decade and may include centres that have since wound down.

Five lists of incubators are not five times as many incubators. They are the same campuses counted by different ministries.

The Seed Fund Scheme figure comes from the government's Lok Sabha reply of 28 July 2026, which says 219 incubators were selected as of 30 June 2026. Those 219 are a subset drawn largely from the other lists, not an addition to them.

How should founders and investors use these counts?

Use each count for the question it answers. If you want seed money, the 219 Seed Fund Scheme incubators are the relevant list, and our map of government funding for startups shows the other schemes. If you want lab access, look at NIDHI and BioNEST centres. If you are quoting a national figure, give the range of scheme counts with dates, never a total.

For founders, the scheme matters more than the label. An incubator on several lists can offer grants, seed money and lab space together. Ask which schemes a centre is part of, and how much of each it has left to give. Our note on how incubators help startups raise funding covers the questions.

For investors, startup counts per incubator say little about quality. Supported startups add up to very different totals by scheme: 6,700 for Atal centres, 12,000 for NIDHI. Our guide to what incubator-backed startups offer investors shows what to check instead.

A national register of incubators, with each centre's schemes listed, would end the confusion. Until one exists, the honest answer to "how many incubators does India have" is a short table with dates, not a single number.

Questions

How many incubators are there in India?

No single official figure exists. The government counts incubators scheme by scheme: 72 Atal Incubation Centres under AIM, 175+ technology business incubators under DST's NIDHI, 74 BioNEST bio-incubators, 219 incubators under the Seed Fund Scheme and 517+ in MeitY's startup hub network.

How many Atal Incubation Centres are there?

The government's June 2026 backgrounder says 72 Atal Incubation Centres have supported over 6,700 startups and helped create more than 32,000 jobs. AIM offers each centre a grant of up to Rs 10 crore over a maximum of five years.

Why do incubator counts in India overlap?

Because schemes fund institutions, not exclusive centres. One university or research body can host an Atal Incubation Centre, a NIDHI incubator and a bio-incubator at once, and the Seed Fund Scheme mainly selects incubators already assisted by government. Each list counts the same institution again.

How many biotech incubators does India have?

It depends on the scheme. BIRAC's BioNEST page says it has supported 74 bio-incubators. In a Lok Sabha reply on 30 July 2025, the government put the number at 94 biotech incubators across 25 States and UTs, counting both the BioNEST and E-YUVA schemes.

Sources: Press Information Bureau, Empowered Youth, Stronger Nation (backgrounder), 13 Jun 2026 · Press Information Bureau, A Decade of Startup India (backgrounder), 15 Jan 2026 · Atal Innovation Mission, Atal Incubation Centres page (last updated 3 Jan 2024) · BIRAC, BioNEST page (last updated 1 Nov 2026) · BioVoice News, India has set up 94 biotech incubators across 25 states (Lok Sabha reply of 30 Jul 2025), 31 Jul 2025 · DST, NIDHI-TBI page (last updated 14 Feb 2025) · Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question No. 1446 (DPIIT reply), 28 Jul 2026 · DPIIT, Guidelines for Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, Jan 2021

For more on how startup funding works in India, read the MyStartupValley blog or visit mystartupvalley.com.