A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) under the Defence Ministry and Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) under the U.S. Department of Defence to enhance cooperation on defence innovation at the third edition of India-U.S. Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) summit held in California from September 9 to 10.

The summit was jointly organised by the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and Stanford University.

“During the summit, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between iDEX and the Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) to increase co-operation in defence innovation and deepen collaboration to facilitate industry, research, and investment partnerships among the stakeholders,” a Defence Ministry statement said. Other key highlights of the summit included announcement of a new challenge under INDUS-X, release of the INDUS-X impact report and launch of the official INDUS-X webpage on iDEX and DIU websites, it stated.

The INDUS-X summit was launched in June 2023 during the State visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the U.S. to expand strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between governments, businesses, and academic institutions of India and the U.S. Two defence innovation challenges related to the maritime domain were launched under INDUS-X, steered by iDEX and DIU, last year — underwater communications for the Indian Navy and oil spill detection for the Coast Guard.

Stating that the summit offers a platform for jointly showcasing next generation technologies by start-ups/MSMEs, the statement said that it also enables critical dialogue through senior advisory group and senior leaders forum, the two advisory forums under INDUS-X. “The discussions focused, inter-alia, on future technology trends, capacity building of start-ups, funding opportunities for defence innovations and strengthening defence supply chains,” it added.

(With Inputs From Agencies)