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One of the country’s first Defence incubators will come up in Hyderabad, which is India’s missile development centre and fast emerging the hub for aerospace industries.
The incubator will be housed at T-Hub, which has already got recognition as one of the country’s major centres for nurturing start-ups and creative ideas. The Telangana State government proposes to accommodate the Defence incubator in the upcoming Phase-2 of the T-Hub.
State support
“In addition to providing land, we are ready to host research in prototyping, testing and quality control facilities for the start-ups, which will give a fillip to the overall research and development ecosystem,” said KT Rama Rao, Telangana Minister for IT & Industries.
He was responding to the favourable response from Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to the request he made earlier seeking an incubator and a defence corridor in Hyderabad. “The incubator will give a big impetus to the defence and aerospace industries and research ecosystem,” he said.
IDEX Scheme
The incubator will be funded through the Ministry’s Innovation for Defence Exellence (iDEX) scheme. Under the scheme research in the fields of Aerospace & Defence by MSMEs, start-ups, research institutions, educational institutions are to be funded, Nirmala Sitharam said in the communiqué, according to an official release.
The iDEX will be funded and managed by a Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO). Initially, a corpus of ₹100 crore has been created by two PSUs--HAL and BEL, each contributing ₹50 crore. More defence PSUs will join in with financial contributions when required. Similarly, the Ministry of Defence also will extend funds when necessary.
Hyderabad as hub
Hyderabad is home to over 10 large establishments of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), defence public sector units like the Mishra Dhatu Nigam, Bharat Dynamics Limited, Missile Complex, Tata Aerospace Limited, around 100 SMEs and hundreds of MSMEs providing critical support to large defence projects in the private sector and the fast expanding Aerospace Park in Adibhatla.
T-Hub is the largest Incubation facility in the country. Its second phase has been taken up by the Telangana government in view of the demands it has been able to generate, KTR said.
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