NID DAT — eligibility, Prelims & Mains, reservation & fees

NID Ahmedabad (with campuses at Gandhinagar and Bengaluru) is an Institute of National Importance under the NID Act, 2014, run as an autonomous institute of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry. NID Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Assam are also autonomous DPIIT institutes of national importance. [1]

The NID Admissions Cell runs one application and one DAT for all of them. DAT Prelims only shortlists — its score carries no weight later. Shortlisted candidates (2.5 times the seats in each category) take the DAT Mains, and each NID admits on the Mains score. [1]

Admissions 2027-28 calendar [1]

Applicants to the B.Des / Integrated M.Des cannot also apply for NID's 2.5-year M.Des — both tests are on the same day. [1]

• Education: passed, or appearing in 2026-27, a higher-secondary (10+2) exam in any stream — Science, Arts, Commerce, Humanities — from a recognised board. Equivalents include NIOS (five subjects), H.S.C. vocational, GCE A-level and a 3-year AICTE diploma after Class 10.
• Class 12 must be passed in the first attempt, with the mark sheet in by 15 July 2027. Any backlog, compartment or supplementary cancels the admission and forfeits the fees. [1]

Age limit (born on or after) [1]

Foreign citizens, OCI and PIO card holders apply only in the Overseas category (15 extra seats at NID Ahmedabad, one per discipline). NRIs with an Indian passport apply as Indian nationals. [1]

The two DAT stages [1]

• The Prelims duration is printed on the admit card; the Mains weightages, schedule and the tie-break rule are to be announced later.
• You must take both Mains tests to enter the merit list.
• Merit lists are category-wise (General, GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST, PwD), with a separate list for Overseas candidates.
• Prelims re-totalling (only checking that every answer was marked and totalled) costs ₹2,000; no re-evaluation is done. [1]

DAT Prelims is held in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jorhat, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi and Patna. [1]

Reserved seats per discipline [1]

• PwD: 5% of all seats across Open, GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC and ST, for disabilities under the RPwD Act 2016, with a UDID card or CMO certificate.
• Unfilled OBC-NCL seats go to the Open category; unfilled GEN-EWS, SC and ST seats are not de-reserved.
• EWS and OBC-NCL certificates must be in the Central format, issued on or after 1 April 2026 in the candidate's own name (the EWS one with the candidate's photo).
• A wrong certificate moves you to General — unless you used the age relaxation, in which case the candidature is cancelled. [1]

Seat counts for NID Andhra Pradesh and Assam are published on their own websites; the handbook's amendment gives the NID MP and NID Haryana figures. [1]

• Step 1 — sign up on admissions.nid.edu with programme, nationality and category; verify by OTP. Name, programme, date of birth, email and mobile can never be changed.
• Step 2 — fill the form and pick a Prelims test centre.
• Step 3 — upload a studio photograph and signature (JPG, 50–200 KB) and any category / PwD certificate (PDF, up to 1 MB).
• Step 4 — pay online (card or net banking) and print the auto-generated form; only then is the application complete. [1]

Application fee 2027-28 (one fee covers all NIDs, non-refundable) [1]

Changing category or gender in the edit window means paying any extra fee; excess fees are not refunded. [1]

NID Ahmedabad — 5.5-year Integrated M.Des, 9 seats per discipline [1]

• NID Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal): Integrated M.Des in Communication Design (9 seats per discipline), Industrial Design and Textile & Apparel Design (13 each).
• NID Haryana: Integrated M.Des, 13 seats each in six disciplines across Industrial, Communication and Textile & Apparel Design.
• NID Assam (Jorhat): 4-year B.Des in Industrial, Communication and Textile & Apparel Design; intake 75.
• NID Andhra Pradesh: programmes and seats on nid.ac.in. [1]

1. NID — Admissions Handbook 2027-28: 5.5-Year Integrated M.Des and B.Des (published 10 Sep 2026) (opens in a new tab) NID status, calendar, disciplines and seats, amendments (NID MP / Haryana), age and education rules, reservation and de-reservation, overseas seats, application steps, fees, DAT Prelims / Mains, centres, results · Last checked 15 Oct 2026

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