NEW DELHI: Emphasising on the importance of boosting defence manufacturing, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday stated that focusing on innovation is vital to achieving the goal of indigenisation and self-reliance in the defence sector.
“India is leading in the fields of technology and peacekeeping throughout the world. As a major power, it is equally important for us to strengthen our defence manufacturing as well as research and development,” said the Defence Minister.
He was addressing the inaugural session of ‘Def Connect 2019’ organised to showcase the accomplishments of the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative in New Delhi. More than 350 startups participated in the event.
The minister expressed confidence that India will emerge as a net innovator and net exporter of defence technologies rather than a net importer.
“Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of $5 trillion economy by 2024. Looking at the talent India possesses, I am pretty confident that we can become $10 trillion economy in the next 10-15 years,” he said.
Singh said, the aim of iDEX is to recognise talent and harness it amongst the youth, MSMEs, startups and the fast emerging private sector.
The union minister gave out cheques of around `1.5 crore each to two startups — North Street Cooling Towers Private Limited and Chipspirit Technologies Private Limited — for building on their innovative ideas.
Secretary (Defence Production) Subhash Chandra said that the initiative’s aim is to fund 250 startups and achieve 50 tangible innovations within the next five years.The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is in the process of seeking approval of Rs 500 crore for the purpose.