New Delhi: Defence Production Department’s innovation initiative, iDEX-DIO achieved a milestone when they inked the 150th contract within five months of the signing of its 100th contract on July 26, 2022.

The iDEX framework was launched by the Prime Minister in 2018 with the objective to provide a platform of co-creation and co-development in the defence sector, engage start-ups and develop defence and aerospace set up in the country.

This 150th contract relates to an Indian Navy project of the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 7) SPRINT edition. The challenge was titled ‘Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Training Target (EMATT) capable of simulating the sound and movement of a submarine’ and the winner was Altair Infrasec from Pune.

The contract was signed by Joint Secretary (Defence Industries Production) and Additional CEO/DIO Anurag Bajpai with CEO of Altair Infrasec Anil Anand in the presence of Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and other senior officials of the Ministry of Defence.

In his address, the Defence Secretary elaborated on the conducive environment created due to the initiatives taken by the Government wherein new private sector companies are being given opportunities to contribute. He expressed hope that more companies would take advantage of this ecosystem and help achieve the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

Till date, iDEX has received more than 6,500 applications from individual innovators, MSMEs and start-ups under DISC, Prime and OC. It has also been able to generate thousands of jobs and attract India’s talent back to the country.

During DefExpo 2022 held in October, the Prime Minister had launched Mission DefSpace, including DISC 8 to develop innovative solutions for the Armed Forces in the space domain through industry and start-ups. The last date to apply is January 2, 2023.