New Delhi: The Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), the flagship initiative of the defence ministry on Wednesday signed its 150th contract for defence innovation with Altair Infrasec Pvt Ltd on ‘Expendable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Training target’ (EMATT).

It was signed by Joint Secretary (Defence Industries Production) & Additional CEO/DIO Anurag Bajpai with Altair Infrasec Pvt Ltd CEO, Anil Anand in the presence of Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and other senior civil & military officials of Ministry of Defence.

The signed contract relates to an Indian Navy project of the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 7) SPRINT edition.

The challenge envisaged development of a training target capable of being deployed from P8I aircraft, MH60R helicopters, ships doing speed up to 10 knots and other Remotely Piloted Aircraft without undertaking any modification on the platform from which the EMATT is required to be launched.

IDEX is the flagship initiative of the Department of Defence Production and it was rolled out to encourage start-ups and other such entities engaged in defence innovation. It achieved the milestone within five months of the signing of its 100th contract on July 26, 2022.

Speaking on the occasion, the Defence Secretary elaborated on the conducive environment created due to the initiatives taken by the Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wherein new private sector companies are being provided with opportunities to grow and contribute to Nation Building.

He expressed hope that more companies would take advantage of this ecosystem and help achieve the vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’. He congratulated Altair Infrasec Pvt Ltd and assured the support of Ministry of Defence for the completion of the project.

Till date, iDEX has received more than 6,500 applications from individual innovators, MSMEs and start-ups under DISC, Prime and OC. It has also been able to generate thousands of jobs and attract India’s talent back to the country.