Ministry of Defence allocates Rs 500 cr for designing innovative products

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on Sunday an allocation of Rs 498.8 crore, over the next five years, for its indigenisation scheme: “Innovations for Defence Excellence” (iDEX).

The iDEX initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2018, with the aim of fostering innovation and technology development in defence and aerospace. This is achieved by engaging and funding micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), start-ups, individual innovators, research and development (R&D) institutes and academia.

The allocation of Rs 498.8 crore is aimed at providing financial support under the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) framework to nearly 300 start-ups/MSMEs/individual