Continuing with the strategy of connecting regularly with the start-ups and the multifarious stakeholders, Innovations for Defence Excellence, Defence Innovation Organisation (iDEX-DIO), under the aegis of Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence has organised DefConnect 2.0 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on April 22, 2022. The event will be inaugurated by Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh. 

The event will attract a large number of innovators and investors from India’s leading industries in the defence sector. It will include sessions with stalwarts of the industry, various announcements and static exhibitions of an array of start-ups supported by iDEX-DIO. The event will bring together start-ups, corporates and military representatives to ascertain the indigenous innovations leading us into a bright future. 

The DefConnect will provide a unique opportunity for innovators associated with iDEX-DIO to showcase their capabilities, products and state-of-the-art-technologies to the target audience of the industry leaders. The start-ups get to leverage this opportunity to generate investments and leads for future operations. This will be a unique opportunity to meet iDEX start-ups and understand their innovative technologies being developed with requisite support from iDEX and the associated partners.

 Platforms like the iDEX enable the military to find disruptive solutions to complex challenges through its flagship programmes like Defence India Startup Challenges (DISC) and Open Challenges (OC) which shall be the key components for the future of military technology. Till date, iDEX has launched five rounds of DISC and three rounds of OC, receiving more than 2,000 applications from individual innovators and start-ups. Furthermore, iDEX has been able to fund projects in numerous technological areas through its Grant-in-Aid framework, Support for Prototype and Research Kickstart (SPARK), which entail provisioning of grant up to Rs 1.50 crore to budding entrepreneurs.

 Innovation has become the key driver of the pace of societal evolution and it redefines social parameters with unique outputs. iDEX has always been at the forefront of innovation in defence and internal security and most of its projects also have tremendous civilian applications: Quantum Computation, Artificial Intelligence/Predictive Maintenance/Logistics/Data Analytics, Security/Encryption, Communication etc. To take this further, iDEX will be launching the sixth edition of DISC with numerous diverse problem statements from various stakeholders.

 iDEX is able to utilise India's strong science, technology and research talent base to develop new capabilities in defence innovation. The understanding of the budding entrepreneurs for sensitising the audience towards defence innovation is being further complemented by the support provided through this scheme.

 The iDEX, launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in 2018, essentially provides a unified platform for various stakeholders in the defence and aerospace sectors. It acts like an umbrella organisation to oversee technology development and potential collaborations in this specific field.

Nampi/Savvy