: The Ministry of Defence selected 139 innovators for providing funds under innovations for defence excellence (iDEX) schemes over last five years, the government told Parliament on Monday.

The three services -- Army, Navy and Air Force -- after successful trials have placed orders on three of the 139 iDEX winners shortlisted till February 2023 , the Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said in a written reply to Abir Ranjan Biswas, the All India Trinamool Congress MP of Rajya Sabha. Other than that the Ministry has also accorded acceptance of necessity (AoN) for 13 more iDEX products which are aimed at promoting self-reliance in the defence sector, Ajay Bhatt told parliamentarians.

The winner innovators get technical handholding through 19 associated partner incubators of iDEX, easier and faster access to test facilities/infrastructure available with various government agencies, co-creation and co-innovation using smooth operating procedures and minimal documentation, said the Minister. The idea is to make the entire regime conducive for them.

iDEX has launched challenges on frontier technologies/ domains like artificial intelligence, augmented reality (AR)/ virtual reality (VR), autonomous/ unmanned solutions, stealth, domain awareness, secure communications, simulation, navigation, predictive maintenance, space, cyber security etc. to ensure that the services enjoy a technological edge over their adversaries.

DRDO’s technology transfer

Since August 2019, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has signed 670 Licensing Agreement for Transfer of Technology (LATOT) with industries for the production of an equipment for the armed force’s use, MoS Bhatt told Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’ Brien in the Upper House. The current DRDO policy for Transfer of Technology (ToT) came into force on 19 August 2019.

The technology is transferred with one of the condition that recipient industry will not handover the know how to any party without prior written approval of the DRDO, the Minister stated. In fact, the confidentiality clause bounds the company not to disclose technology to anyone but for their directors, officers and concerned employees, the Centre advocated.

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