Govt, MSMEs and academia must work together to build ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’: Defence Minister

New Delhi, April 22 (KNN) The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh emphasized on creating a strong bond between the government, armed Forces, MSMEs, private sector, start-ups, and academia to achieve the aim of building a ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

Announcing the launch of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) Prime and sixth Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 6) during DefConnect 2.0 in New Delhi on Friday, the Defence Minister termed start-ups, MSMEs, individual innovators as strong pillars of self-reliant India.

The iDEX-Prime aims to aid projects which requires support beyond Rs 1.5 crore up to Rs 10 crore, to help ever-growing start-ups in the defence sector.

The Defence Minister described DefConnect 2.0 as a symbol of increasing technological prowess of the country and a celebration of the continuous growth of the Indian defense start-up ecosystem.

The winners of DISC 5, Open Challenge (OC 2 and 3) were also felicitated and two sessions with the industry experts were organised during the event. (KNN Bureau)