iDEX-DIO has launched three rounds of Defence India Startup Challenge with 18 problem statements from Armed Forces, DPSUs & OFB and identified 55+ start-ups/ individuals to receive innovation grants in technological areas
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched the Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC 4) during the iDEX event, featuring the initiatives aimed at expanding the horizons of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) ecosystem in New Delhi today.
“In order to further strengthen our defence system and make it self- reliant the participation of private sector is also crucial. For this we have taken certain steps like partnerships with private sector, technology transfer, 74 per cent FDI through automatic route and the recently released negative list of 101 items for import ban after a stipulated period,” noted the minister
iDEX4Fauji initiative and product management approach (PMA) guidelines were also launched by the Raksha Mantri during the event.
Eleven challenges
Under Defence India Startup Challenge 4, eleven challenges from Armed forces, OFB&DPSUs were thrown open to prospective startups, innovators, MSMEs alike to provide their innovative ideas on technologies which find their application in the defence sector. The challenges are as follows:
1. Autonomous Underwater Swarm Drones
2. Predictive, Preventive & Prescriptive Machine Monitoring
3. Super Resolution for Improving Spatial Resolution
4. AI based Satellite Image Analysis
5. Prediction and forecasting of atmospheric visibility
6. Computer Generated Targets for Virtual Training
7. Remote Real Time In-Flight Health Monitoring of Aircrew
8. MF-TDMA based Wideband SATCOM Modem
9. Foliage Penetration Radar
10. Reduction of RCS of Naval Warships
11. Target Detection in Chaff Environment
The iDEX initiative of the Department of Defence Production was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in April 2018 with the objective to encourage and nurture innovations in the Indian Defence sector and create an ecosystem where startups, MSMEs and individual innovators could interact easily with the Indian defence establishment and provide the latest technological innovations for specific challenges experienced in operational environments through co-development and co-production of innovative solutions.
The iDEX initiatives are executed by Defence Innovation Organisation, a Section 8 company of DPSUs BEL and HAL. iDEX-DIO has launched three rounds of Defence India Startup Challenge with 18 problem statements from Armed Forces, DPSUs&OFB and identified 55+ start-ups/ individuals to receive innovation grants in technological areas.
The prototype funding guidelines called “Support for Prototype and Research Kickstart” (SPARK), which entail provisioning of grants upto Rs 1.5 crore to the startups on the basis of milestones through multiple tranches, for prototype development.
