New Delhi: Indian Space Association, the premier industry association of space and satellite companies in India, February 16 announced a partnership with the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) to promote manufacturing, indigenisation, and innovation in India’s defence-space sector through collaborative-participatory relationship between Services, academia and industry.
Under this partnership, ISpA and DIO, which comes under the Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence, shall promote the Indian space industry including start-ups and MSMEs to aim at developing innovative solutions to meet the defence capability requirements and enhancing the Indian defence-space ecosystem.
ISpA shall provide the DIO with a platform to connect with the Indian Defence Space Industry and academia to help them assess innovative capabilities and niche technologies being developed indigenously.
Vivek Virmani, Chief Operating Officer, iDEX- Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) and Planning Officer, DDP, Ministry of Defence said, “We are happy to partner with ISpA for promoting innovations in India’s defence-space industry. The use of space-based technology in the defence sector is of utmost importance and will help us get a strategic advantage to compete on a global platform. It is important to nurture the Startup and MSME ecosystem in this sector and handhold them to make world-class products from India and we are at the forefront to provide this support.”
Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt (Retd.) Director General, Indian Space Association said, “The private space industry in India is rapidly expanding, and the industry, which is still in its early stages, requires maximum support in order to grow further. Space plays a critical role in defence forces operations and hence there is a greater need to work together on this huge opportunity. The startups and MSME ecosystem would form the backbone of the defence space industry enterprise, along with the existing companies. The market for defence-space activities is actively growing in India, and this collaboration with the DIO will help to strengthen the ‘Make in India’ vision for both the defence and space industries by providing adequate guidance on how to move forward and represent India on a global stage.”
In an effort to boost indigenous innovations in Defence-Space industry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 75 challenges through the iDEX platform at the DefExpo 2022 in October last year. These challenges provide a platform for the space industry and startups to create new ground equipment, satellites, payloads, software, security solutions, and other components and subsystems.
The Indian Space Association (ISpA) is a premier industry association of space and satellite companies launched by Prime Minister Modi. While performing an all-encompassing role for the entire Space Domain, ISpA has undertaken policy advocacy and engage with stakeholders in the Indian space domain, including the Government and its agencies, to make India self-reliant, technologically advanced and a global leader in the space arena. It aims to play the role of advocator and facilitator to support the participation, growth and capacity building of private as well as public industry. It will participate in formulating effective; efficient and appropriate policies; and, regulatory frameworks.
Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) is a “Not for Profit” company which funds and manages iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) to organize various challenges to shortlist potential technologies for defence use and encourage their adoption into the defence establishment with suitable assistance. Towards this end, various schemes such as DISC (Defence India Start-up Challenge), OC (Open challenge), iDEX Prime, and iDEX4Fauji have been launched and the procedures for hosting the challenges, identifying the winners, provision of funding (including enhanced funding upto Rs. 10 crores under iDEX Prime & upto Rs 1.5 crores for DISC/OC) and accelerated induction procedures are well established.
