Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on April 22 launched ‘Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) Prime’ and the 6th Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 6) during the DefConnect 2.0 in New Delhi. The iDEX-Prime, aims to support defence projects that require support beyond Rs.1.5 crore and up to Rs.10 crore.
Rajnath Singh also launched the ‘DISC 6 with 38 Problem Statements’, with the problem statements relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Advanced Imaging, Sensor Systems, Big Data Analytics and Autonomous Unmanned Systems and Secured Communication, among others.
While previous editions of the DISC witnessed the participation of only the Army, Navy, Air Force and some defence public sector undertakings, DISC 6 saw for the first time the involvement of the seven newly formed defence companies, the Coast Guard and organisations under the Home Ministry.
In his address, Rajnath Singh described DefConnect 2.0 as a symbol of India’s increasing technological prowess and a celebration of the continuous growth of the Indian defence start-up ecosystem. It is indicative of the success of the iDEX initiative, which has helped in the development of many new and indigenous technologies, the Minister stated. The initiative, the Minister said, had so far introduced more than 100 iDEX winners to the market, providing direct and indirect employment to thousands of skilled and semi-skilled people.
Rajnath Singh said the government had earmarked 68 per cent of the capital procurement budget for domestic procurement, reserved 25 per cent of the defence R&D budget for private industry and start-ups and released the ‘third positive indigenisation list’ of 101 items. He exuded confidence that many start-ups would soon come out as defence unicorns and feature among Fortune 500 companies.
Terming the private sector, individual innovators, start-ups and MSMEs as strong pillars of ‘Aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat’, Rajnath Singh exhorted each one of them "to imagine, innovate and develop new defence technologies and ensure uniqueness in each one of them".
Speaking on the occasion, Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, Niti Aayog, described defence manufacturing as key for India to become a manufacturing hub. He said the achievements of iDEX had laid the foundation of a huge success story that manufacturing would take place in India in the times to come.
Kant added that Indian start-ups possess phenomenal energy and are successfully finding solutions to challenges in defence manufacturing and agriculture productivity among others.
Ajay Kumar, Defence Secretary, credited the start-ups for the success of the iDEX initiative. He, however, termed it as just an interim milestone and called upon the start-ups to continuously strive to develop home-made technologies and bring them at par with international technologies.
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