• The Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), the flagship initiative of the Ministry of Defence, has signed its 250^th contract – the first under Mission DefSpace – and 100th SPRINT (Navy) contract
  • The contract is for Micropropulsion system for cubesats with the Indian private entity InspeCity.
• The ‘SPRINT’ initiative, a total of 75 Challenge statements for the Indian industry was unveiled during the Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) seminar ‘Swavlamban’ in July 2022.
  • The initiative aims at inducting at least 75 technologies/products into the Indian Navy by August 2023.
• Mission Defspace
  • It is an ambitious effort to develop innovative solutions for the three Services (Indian airforce, Navy and Army) in the space domain through the Indian industry and start-ups.
  • Startups, innovators and the private sector will be invited to find solutions for the problems that will include both offensive and defensive capabilities.

ABOUT IDEX

• It was launched in 2018.
• iDEX aims to promote innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging industries which include MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes & academia.
• iDEX is being implemented by Defence Innovation Organisation(DIO), established under the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence.