New Delhi: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said that the launch of iDEX4Fauji is a step towards making the country and its forces Atmanirbhar (self-reliant).

“The launch of iDEX4Fauji is a step towards making us Atmanirbhar. The budget allocated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will encourage the security forces. The innovations that we were doing will now turn into developmental projects,” Rawat said at the video conference.

Regarding the visit to Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir by the Defence Minister and him, Rawat said, “Some months ago we visited Kupwara sector close to the Line of Control (LoC) and there our Jawans showed several innovations to the Defence Minister with which they use to take action against terrorists. So the defence minister enquired how to develop these innovations so that the security forces in border areas benefit. Our soldiers made several innovations and to take it to step forward iDEX4Fauji will give the right direction.”

This IDEX4Fauji initiative will bolster frugal innovative ideas from soldiers and help to revolutionise the future of our Armed Forces.

Our soldier would not only have a thorough understanding of their own requirements but also have necessary support of innovators & Startups.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) September 29, 2020

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday released the Project Management Approach (PMA) guidelines for iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) during the launch function of Defence India Startup Challenge-4 (DISC4).

“DISC-4 challenge will surge ahead of its earlier editions and promote innovation and development in the country. Similarly iDEX4Fauji initiative will ensure the participation of our personnel in this programme,” Rajnath Singh said.

The Defence Minister congratulated all stakeholders, including those in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for creating such an environment where participants from various sectors are coming together to promote innovation in defence.

Attended the launch of Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC 4), “iDEX4Fauji” initiative and Product Management Approach (PMA) guidelines at South Block today.

Each of the these initiatives will help the iDEX-DIO to scaleup the programme qualitatively and quantitatively. pic.twitter.com/0ILhKdShlp

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) September 29, 2020

“In the process of making defence sector strong and self-reliant we have understood that along with the government sector the private sector too needs to participate in this. We have taken some policy decisions too in this regard.

Partnerships with private sector, technology transfer, 74 percent FDI approval and the recently released negative list of 101 items are a part of it. We want to promote our private players along with opting for built in the country products,” he said.

The Defence Minister mentioned the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 launched on Monday, which contains provisions to promote the private sector’s participation.

“We neither have a dearth of talent nor of demand for it. In the absence of a common platform, they were not able to meet up at a common place. iDEX platform has succeeded in filling this gap. In the last three rounds of DISC, over 700 startups and innovators had participated. Out of these 58 participants, were chosen for innovation grants under ‘Support for Prototype and research kickstart’ (SPARK),” Singh said.

He further added that the 11 challenges in the DISC-4 challenge cover all needs of the armed forces.