Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC)

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Defence Minister of India, Rajnath Singh, launched the 5th edition of the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC) on August 19, 2021.

About
DISC was launched under Innovations for Defence Excellence – Defence Innovation Organisation (iDEX-DIO).

• This challenge is meant to achieve self-reliance and foster innovation and technology development across the defence and aerospace sectors.
• This challenge was launched by Ministry in partnership with Atal Innovation Mission.
• It was launched with the aim of providing support to Startups, MSMEs and Innovators to create prototypes or commercialize products and solutions in the fields of National Defence and Security.
• Thirty-five problem statements

Under the DISC, 35 problem statements were launched comprising of 13 from Services and 22 Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). 35 statements were launched from Armed Forces and OFB or DPSUs for the resolution by startups & innovators. These statements are areas like situational awareness, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, non-lethal devices, aircraft-trainer, 5G network, Drone SWARMS, underwater domain awareness, and data capturing.

iDEX4fauji

iDEX4fauji initiative is a similar initiative like DISC. It provided opportunity to Service personnel to showcase their talents in technological areas. iDEX initiative was launched in 2018, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Background

In the earlier editions of DISC, more than 80 start-ups, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and individual innovators joined as winners across 40 technological areas.  DISC 5.0 was launched three years after the launch of DISC 1.0.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)

AIM is a flagship initiative that seeks to create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in India. It was launched with the objective of developing new programmes and policies in order to foster innovation in different sectors of the economy.