About
- iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) launched in 2018, is an ecosystem to foster innovation & technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging innovators & entrepreneurs to deliver technologically advanced solutions for modernizing the Indian Military.
- It provides funding/grants to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), start-ups, individual innovators, R&D (Research and Development) institutes, and academia to conduct research and development.
- The iDEX-Prime aims to support projects requiring support beyond Rs 1.5 crore up to Rs 10 crore, to help ever-growing start-ups in the defence sector.
- The iDEX portal was launched to provide wider publicity and better visibility of iDEX activities and enable more efficient running of future challenges through better information management.
Objectives
- Indigenization: Rapid development of new, indigenized and innovative technology.
- Innovation: Creates a culture of engagement with innovative startups to encourage co-creation.
Funding
- iDEX is funded and managed by “Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO)”.
- iDEX will function as the executive arm of DIO, carrying out all the required activities while DIO will provide high level policy guidance to iDEX.
Achievement
iDEX has been awarded the prestigious Prime Minister Award for Public Policy in Innovation Category for the year 2021.
Mission DefSpace
- It was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India during the October 2022 edition of India’s DefExpo.
- It aims to nurture the Indian Private Space industry through challenges addressing every stage of a space mission – from mission planning to satellite data analytics.
- This mission encompasses 75 Defense Space Challenges that directly suit the needs of end users.
- These challenges have been categorised into the existing DDP initiatives of iDEX, Make-I, and Make-2, allowing participation from private industries, including startups, MSMEs, and individual innovators.
- The challenges are categorized into different domains:
- Launch System
- Satellite System
- Communication & Payload System
- Ground System, and Software System.
- Together, they offer an in-depth and complete understanding of space from a 360-degree perspective.
