- Recently, the Ministry of Defence has launched Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) Prime and the sixth Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 6) during DefConnect 2.0 in New Del
- DefConnect 2.0 is a one-day event to bring together start-ups, big companies and armed forces personnel to boost indigenous innovation in the defence sector.
- What is Innovation for Defence Ecosystem (iDEX)?
- iDEX, launched in 2018, is an ecosystem to foster innovation & technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging innovators & entrepreneurs to deliver technologically advanced solutions for modernizing the Indian Military.
Core Objectives:
- Rapid development of new, indigenized and innovative technology.
- Creates a culture of engagement with innovative startups to encourage co-creation.
- It provides funding/grants to MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes and academia to carry out research and development.
- The iDEX-Prime aims to support projects requiring support beyond Rs 1.5 crore up to Rs 10 crore, to help ever-growing start-ups in the defence sector.
- iDEX is funded and managed by “Defence Innovation Organisation”.
- iDEX portal was launched to provide wider publicity and better visibility of iDEX activities and enable more efficient running of future challenges through better information management.
Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO)
- DIO is a not for profit organisation formed under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013.
- It is funded by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
- It provides high-level policy guidance to iDEX.
Defence India Start-up Challenge
- DISC aims at supporting Startups/MSMEs (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises) / Innovators to create prototypes and/or commercialize products/solutions in National Defence and Security.
- The First Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC) was launched on 4th Aug 2018 at Bengaluru.
- It was launched by the Ministry of Defence in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission.
- Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is Government of India’s flagship initiative to create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of our country.
- Under the program, the start-ups, Indian companies and individual innovators (including research & academic institutions) can participate.
- DISC 6 witnessed the participation of newly-formed seven defence companies the Indian Coast Guard and organisations under the Ministry of Home Affairs for the first time.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT