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iDEX And Defence India Start-Up Challenge

iDEX And Defence India Start-Up Challenge:

Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), the flagship initiative of Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, has reached a milestone with the signing of its 150th contract.

  • The contract relates to an Indian Navy project of the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 7) SPRINT edition.
  • 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.
  • It provides funding/grants to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (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 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.
  • Objectives:
    • Rapid development of new, indigenized and innovative technology.
    • Creates a culture of engagement with innovative startups to encourage co-creation.
  • Funding:
    • iDEX is funded and managed by “Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO)”.
  • iDEX has been awarded the prestigious Prime Minister Award for Public Policy in Innovation Category for the year 2021.