RAJYA SABHA
DEFENCE STARTUPS
Will the Minister of DEFENCE be pleased to state:
(a) whether it is a fact that Government is planning 250 defence startups over next five years;
(b) whether Government has identified projects to be taken up under startup scheme, if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether there is a need to strengthen Research and Development in defence manufacturing, steps taken by Government in this regard;
(d) whether Government is planning to expand innovations for Defence Excellence Initiative and earmark at least Rs.500 crore for this initiative; and
(e) the steps taken by Government to bring together innovators with public and private sector industry and to make the country exporter of defence technologies?
SHRI SHRIPAD NAIK
STATEM ENT REF ERRED T O IN REP LY TO PARTS (a) to ( e) OF RA JYA S ABHA UNSTARRED QUE ST ION N O. 66 5 F OR ANSWER ON 0 8.02. 20 21 REGARDI NG ‘DEF ENCE STA RTUPS’.
(a) More than 300 Start-ups are currently registered with Start-up India operating in the Aeronautics, Aerospace & Defence sector.
(b) to (e):
- Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) framework, was launched with the aim to achieve self-reliance and to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace Sector by engaging Industries including MSMEs, start- ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes and academia. More than 60 iDEX winners have so far been identified. 11 new problem statements have been launched recently to expand the network, under Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC) 4.
- Apart from the above, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has launched a program termed as Technology Development Fund (TDF) for meeting the requirements of Tri- Services, Defence Production and DRDO. The scheme has been established to promote self-reliance in Defence Technology as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative by encouraging participation of public/private industries especially MSMEs including Star-ups.
- Further, ‘Make-II procedure has been simplified to encourage wider participation of Indian industry, with impetus for MSME/start-ups sector and timely induction of equipment into Indian Armed forces. In addition, the frame work for implementation of ‘Make-II’ at Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) level has also been notified.
- DRDO has evolved a new industry friendly Transfer of Technology (ToT) policy for transfer of DRDO developed technologies to industries. DRDO has also promulgated new patent policy to facilitate Indian industries to get free access to use DRDO patents.
Following policy initiatives have been undertaken by the Government to promote Defence Exports:-
- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the export of munitions list items has been simplified to reduce the processing time for export authorizations.
- A completely end-to-end online portal for receiving and processing authorization permission has been developed. The applications submitted on this portal are digitally signed and the authorizations are also digitally issued.
- The Government has notified the Open General Export License (OGEL) – a one-time export license, which permits the industry to export specified items to specified destinations, enumerated in the OGEL, without seeking export authorisation on case to case basis during the validity of the OGEL.
- A ‘Scheme for Promotion of Defence Exports has been notified to provide an opportunity to the prospective exporters an option to get their product certified by the Government and provides access to the testing infrastructure of Ministry of Defence for initial validation of the product and its subsequent field trials. The certificate can be produced by the prospective exporter for marketing their products suitably in the global market.
- A separate Cell has been formed in the Department of Defence Production (DDP) to co-ordinate and follow-up on export related action including enquiries received from various countries and facilitate private sector and public sector companies for export promotion.
- Defence attaches are tasked to take up actions for promoting exports of Indian made defence products both of public and private sector in the countries to which they are attached.
- DRDO provides all necessary support to the industries for export of DRDO designed & developed product(s). DRDO has evolved a compendium of “DRDO Developed Product with Potential for Export”, which provides the necessary and handy information about the products ready for export.
- DPSUs and OFB have been allocated certain countries to provide focused attention to encourage Defence exports in those countries and in addition, support the Indian Missions in this endeavour.
- A High Level Committee (HLC) has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Raksha Mantri to facilitate faster clearances to export of major indigenous defence platforms to Friendly Foreign Countries.
- Webinars are being organized with Friendly Foreign Countries under the aegis of DDP, MoD through Industry Associations with active participation from Indian Defence Industries.