New Delhi: Seeking to expand the scope of its flagship Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme, the Ministry of Defence has sought additional funds from the Finance Ministry to keep it going, according to a media report.
The Department of Defence Production (DDP) under the Ministry of Defence has already exhausted around 90% of the total Rs 498.78 crore approved for the scheme for a period of five years — from 2021-22 to 2025-26, as per the report citing senior government officials.
For the development of niche defence and aerospace technologies, the iDEX scheme aims to provide financial support to nearly 300 startups, MSMEs and individual innovators and about 20 partner incubators.
Till August this year, procurement of 37 products successfully developed under iDEX worth Rs 2,370 crore have been approved, of which procurement contracts of 21 products worth Rs 800 crore have already been signed, according to official data. More challenges are being launched under iDEX. As per the data, over 300 of them have been declared iDEX winners.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at an event earlier this month had said that 26 products have been developed under the iDEX initiative, for which procurement orders worth more than Rs 1,000 crore have been placed.
The exhaustion of funds is in line with the steady and fast uptake of the scheme and its success has encouraged its scaling up and that it needs additional funds and other resources, including manpower, senior government officials said.
Around 90% funds of the approved budgetary outlay have already been committed against the ongoing projects, an official said. For further signing of contracts with iDEX winners, additional funds of Rs 497.15 crore is required. The official added that commitment of additional funds from the government is essential to continue further engagement of iDEX with startups and this has also been highlighted in a recent communication to the Finance Ministry by Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane.
The need for additional funds had also been recommended by the Revised Cost Committee (RCC) in 2023 and the process for third-party evaluation of the scheme has already been initiated for completion within the current financial year, an official said.
Once approved, the total cost of the central sector scheme will be around Rs 996 crore. Initially, the grant provided to iDEX winners was Rs 1.5 crore, but the iDEX scheme was expanded to iDEX Prime later, with the assistance increasing from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 10 crore. It was felt by several stakeholders that despite having the capability and the technical knowhow, the ceiling of Rs 1.5 crore was a constraint in developing advanced and complex systems in the niche domain of defence and aerospace.
The Defence Minister, earlier this year, launched another initiative — the Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX (ADITI) scheme — to promote innovations in critical and strategic defence technologies under which start-ups are eligible to receive grant-in-aid of up to Rs 25 crore for their research, development and innovation endeavours in defence technology.
Under the iDEX framework, the ADITI scheme worth Rs 750 crore for the period 2023-24 to 2025-26 aims to develop about 30 deep-tech critical and strategic technologies in a proposed timeframe, while bridging the gap between the expectations and requirements of the modern Armed Forces and the capabilities of the defence innovation ecosystem.
In the first edition of ADITI, 17 challenges – three for the Indian Army, five each for the Navy and the Indian Air Force and four for the Defence Space Agency — were launched, as per the government statement.
Defence Singh launched the ADITI 2.0 recently, featuring 19 challenges from the armed forces and allied agencies in the domains of artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology, military communication, anti-drone systems customised for military platforms and adaptive camouflage among others. This scheme offers a grant of up to Rs 25 crore to iDEX winners, focusing on critical technological areas crucial for strengthening the defence ecosystem of the country.
The 12th edition of Defence India Start-up Challenges (DISC 12) was also launched by the Defence Minister, which presents 41 challenges across key technology domains, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), AI, networking and communication, with grants up to Rs 1.5 crore. To provide momentum to the iDEX initiative, DISC was launched in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission, aimed at supporting start-ups, MSMEs, innovators to create prototypes and commercialise products or solutions in national defence and security.
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