BANGALORE: From futuristic laser weapons to 4G LAN (local area networks) for communication, the Centre on Saturday posed 11 technological challenges faced by the armed forces to startups in the country, while announcing a policy package that hopes to create a conducive ecosystem that encourages such firms to participate more in the defence sector.

The challenges — Individual Protection System with built-in sensors; See-Through Armour; Carbon Fibre Winding (CFW); Active Protection System (APS); Secure hardware based offline Encrypt or Device for Graded Security; Development of 4G/LTE based Tactical Local Area Network; Development of Advanced Technology Based Desalination System (Water Purification) and Bilge Oily Water Separation System; Artificial Intelligence in Logistics; Remotely Piloted Airborne Vehicles; Laser Weapons and Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles — meant for the Army, Navy and Air Force, were part of the Defence India Startup Challenge.
Defence India Startup Challenge, is part of iDEX (Innovation for Defence Excellence) scheme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April with a goal of building an eco-system of innovation and entrepreneurship in India for the defence sector to make India self-reliant.

Two Airbus subsidiaries on Friday signed deals with three Indian startups. Airbus unit Navblue signed up Bengaluru-based Stelae Technologies for checking aeronautical data services quality and consistency. Navblue also extended its contract with Eflight, which aims at wholistic services solutions for Indian domestic aviation market.

Launching the challenges here on Saturday, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: “The Centre is committed to providing the best ecosystem for you (startups) and you’ve never had such a proactive atmosphere ever before. We are aware that there have been problems in the past when you came looking for opportunities, but now we’ve come to you and we assure you that you’ll not just have a good ecosystem, but also a market for projects.”

She urged startups to come up with solutions not just for the challenges posed but also for anything else they thought was relevant. The three vice-chiefs of the armed forces said that they are now working in changing environments that have allowed them to directly interact with startups.
The ministry of defence (MoD) also launched the Support for Prototype & Research Kickstart (SPARK) initiative, which would enable calling for proposals to address specific technological needs of the Indian defence establishment. Applicants showing capability, intent, and promise to be able to produce functional prototypes or to productise existing technologies will be awarded up to Rs 1.5 crore, strictly on a milestone basis in the form of grant/equity/debt.

The framework for iDEX partners has been designed with a vision to work with India’s innovation entities like existing incubators, which would help in the discovery and exploration of startups/MSMEs that can perform the function of co-creation.

Besides, the defence minister announced the ‘Promotion of startups under Make-II procedure of DPP 2016’, under which projects with estimated cost of prototype development phase not exceeding Rs 3 crore have been reserved for startups, with no separate technical or financial criteria disbarring them.

“We are not disallowing you based on old procedures like technical and financial limitations. If you have an idea and you test it with us, it will find a market as we’ll place orders,” Sitharaman said.

The ministry of defence, as part of its initiatives, also signed MoUs with five incubators namely - The Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, IIM Ahmedabad; Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIT-Bombay; T-Hub, Hyderabad; FORGE (a branded incubation enterprise launched by the Coimbatore Innovation & Business Incubator) and IIT Madras.

Also, for the first time in the history of defence procurement, Bangalore-based Tonbo Imaging was given a Certificate of Accord of ‘Approval in Principle’ for its suo motu proposal ‘Night Fire Control System for automatic grenade launcher-30’.

Pranay Gupta, co-founder of 91springboard, which co-hosted the Defence India Startup Challenge with MoD, said: “ ... Such initiatives have the power to further intensify India’s endeavors to become a self-sufficient economy in terms of defence products and technologies, which are currently imported on a large scale.”

The event saw a total of 600 registrations, while 200 startups, 50 MSMEs and 12 incubators also participated, 91springboard said.

Ajay Kumar, secretary, defence production, said that accelerating innovation driven entrepreneurship and business creation through startups was crucial moving forward and that the ministry is committed to achieving the same.

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