New Delhi, Sept 30 (KNN) Aiming to expand the horizon of innovations for Defence Excellence ecosystem, the defence minister, Rajnath Singh launched the Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC 4) on Tuesday during the iDEX event in New Delhi.

iDEX4Fauji initiative and Product Management Approach (PMA) guidelines were also launched by him.

Each of these initiatives is expected to facilitate iDEX-DIO to scale up the program qualitatively and quantitatively.

iDEX4Fauji initiative and Product Management Approach (PMA) guidelines were also launched by the Minister during the event.  Each of these initiatives is expected to facilitate iDEX-DIO to scale up the program qualitatively and quantitatively.

iDEX4Fauji is a first of its kind initiative, launched to support innovations identified by members of the Indian Armed Forces and will bolster frugal innovation ideas from soldiers/ field formations.

There are more than 13 Lakh service personnel working in the field and on the borders, handling extreme conditions and equipment would be having many ideas and innovations to improve such equipment. There was no mechanism to support such innovations.

iDEX4Fauji would open this window and allow our Faujis to become part of the innovation process and get recognised and rewarded. Services Headquarters will provide support to the soldiers & field formations all over the country to ensure maximum participation.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that the iDEX initiative stands out as one of the most effective and well-executed defence Startup ecosystem created in our country and it would be a decisive step towards achieving self-reliance in the spirit of the AtmaNirbhar Bharat campaign.

He said for the first time, an atmosphere has been created in the country when different stakeholders have been brought together to push for innovations in the defence sector.

"In order to further strengthen our defence system and make it self- reliant the participation of the private sector is also crucial. For this, we have taken certain steps like partnerships with the private sector, technology transfer, 74 % FDI through automatic route and the recently released negative list of 101 items for import ban after a stipulated period." He added.

The iDEX event successfully brought together the iDEX stakeholders on a single platform i.e. Ministry of Defence (MoD), iDEX selected startups, partner incubators, Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), nodal agencies (Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air Force), NITI Aayog, DRDO, DPSUs, OFB, think tanks, private industry and Industry associations. More than 500 startups and innovators participated in the event through video conference.