New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday announced the launch of Defence India Start-up Challenge, DISC-9, during an event in Bengaluru, Karnataka, reported ANI. Announcing the launch, Singh said that the Ministry of Defence has also approved a simplified and fast-track procedure for procurement from iDEX start-ups and MSMEs.
"I'm happy to announce launch of Defence India Start-up Challenge-DISC-9. Defence Ministry has also approved a simplified&fast-track procedure for procurement from iDEX start-ups and MSMEs. iDEX has opened avenues for achieving self-reliance in defense," the minister said, as quoted by ANI.
Earlier Singh inspected an exhibition at the annual defence startup event ‘Manthan’, at Chandan Singh Air Force Convention Centre in Yelahanka, Bengaluru.
Addressing a gathering here, the minister said, "The environment that has been created in our country for start-ups in the last few years, is a boon for youth. 7-8 years back we had a few start-ups in our country, today their number is about to reach 1 lakh."
"More than a hundred Unicorns have been set up by the youth of our country. This not only tells the importance of the newly created start-up ecosystem in our country but also new enthusiasm and passion to do something new within our youth," ANI quoted him as saying.
He said that start-up 'Manthan' is a grand celebration of the journey of growth of the Indian Defense start-up ecosystem. This is an indicator of the success of our initiative “Innovations for Defence Excellence” i.e. iDEX.
"iDEX has helped many home-grown technologies to develop and move forward. iDEX has introduced hundreds of innovators to the market. Thus thousands of skilled & semi-skilled Indians have been helped in direct and indirect employment generation," Singh further said.
Defence India Startup Challenge "has been launched by Ministry in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission, aimed at supporting Startups/MSMEs/Innovators to create prototypes and/or commercialize products/solutions in the area of National Defence and Security, according to iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) website.