How to register your NGO on NITI Aayog's NGO Darpan portal

NGO Darpan is the NITI Aayog portal that issues each Indian NGO a unique 15-character identifier. Since 2015, that ID has been a hard prerequisite for almost every central government scheme open to NGOs — the scheme's own application form on NGO-PS (or the ministry's own portal) will not open without it.

Registration is free. It takes a working morning if the documents are in order, and a few weeks otherwise.

Before you begin

Have these ready as scans or clear photos:

• The NGO's PAN card
• The registration certificate for the legal form the NGO holds — Section 8 certificate, or society registration certificate, or trust deed
• Aadhaar and PAN for three trustees or office-bearers (board members). Their mobile numbers must be Aadhaar-linked for OTP verification
• A working email address the NGO controls. This becomes the login; choose an address that isn't tied to a departing individual

The steps

1. Open https://ngodarpan.gov.in and click Sign Up.
2. Enter the NGO name, choose the type of registration (Section 8, society, trust), enter the state and district of registration.
3. Add the three office-bearers. For each, the portal generates an Aadhaar OTP to their registered mobile number; each has to be entered within the timeout.
4. Upload the registration certificate and PAN card.
5. Submit. The portal issues a system-generated 15-character Darpan ID immediately on successful validation.

The most common cause of a rejected registration is a mismatch between the NGO's name on the PAN and its name on the registration certificate — even a punctuation difference. Fix that at the source, don't try to work around it inside Darpan.

After you have the ID

The Darpan ID is stable and reusable across every central ministry. Keep it recorded alongside the NGO's PAN in every internal reference; every future central-scheme application will ask for it.

The Darpan record shows a public profile at https://ngodarpan.gov.in/index.php/search/ — a funder doing due diligence on the NGO will land on this page. It's worth logging in periodically to keep the profile's contact details, area of work, and key personnel current.

Common mistakes

• Confusing Darpan with NGO-PS. Darpan issues the ID; NGO-PS is the proposal-submission portal that consumes it. Two separate accounts, two separate logins.
• Registering under the personal PAN of a founder rather than the NGO's PAN. The Darpan record cannot be transferred later — start with the correct PAN.
• Letting the office-bearer list go stale. If a listed trustee has left the NGO and their mobile number no longer works, the account can't be recovered without ministry intervention.