Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved INR 498.8 Crore budgetary support to Innovations for Defence Excellence-Defence Innovation Organisation (iDEX-DIO) for the next 5 years for boosting Defence Innovation in India.
- Through this budgetary support, financial support (grants, funding) will be provided to nearly 300 start-ups/MSMEs (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises)/Individual Innovators, Research & Development (R&D) institutes & academics & 20 partner incubators under DIO framework.
- Grants/Funding and other support to carry out R&D development will provide the Grants/Funding and other support to the respective beneficiaries.
Objectives:-
- Facilitate rapid development of new, indigenised and innovative technologies for the Indian defence and aerospace sector.
- The scheme is in line with the Government’s decision to cut imports of military hardware and weapons and make India a hub for defence manufacturing.
Key Points
i.The Department of Defence Production (DDP) will release funds to DIO to set up and manage the iDEX network in the form of Partner Incubators (PIs).
ii.The scheme will perform functions like communicating with innovators/start-ups/technology centres of MSMEs through PIs of Department of Science & Technology (DST) regarding defence and aerospace needs.
iii.It will be responsible for Organizing challenges/hackathons to shortlist potential technologies and entities; evaluate technologies and products developed by innovators/start-ups.
India’s Defence Export Target
The Ministry of Defence has set a goal of a turnover of USD 25 billion (INR 1.75 lakh crore) in defence manufacturing in the next 5 years that included an export target of USD 5 billion (INR 35, 000 Crore) worth of military hardware.
Fact – In May 2020, the Government increased the FDI limit to 74% (from 49%) in the defence sector.
Gist of iDEX
The iDEX initiative was launched by the Prime Minister in April 2018. The creation of the iDEX framework and establishment of DIO has been done by the Department of Defence Production (DDP).
- Its main objective is to achieve self-reliance and foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace.
Rajnath Singh approves policy on declassification of war/operations histories
Rajnath Singh gave approval to a policy on declassification of military history.
i.According to the policy, each organisation under the Ministry of Defence will transfer records to the History Division for upkeep, archival and writing histories.
- It mandates that war records should be declassified in 25 years, and that records older than 25 years need to be appraised by archival experts and transferred to the National Archives of India once war/operations histories have been compiled.
- It mandates the constitution of a committee headed by the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence which consists of representatives of the Services, Ministry of External Affairs, Home Ministry and other organisations for compilation of war/operation histories.
- The war committee should be formed within 2 years of completion of war or operation and war operation histories need to be compiled within 5 years.
ii.The responsibility for declassification of records rests with the respective organisations as specified in the Public Record Act 1993 and Public Record Rules 1997, as amended from time to time.
iii.The recommendation for a policy on declassification of war records was recommended by the Kargil Review Committee (headed by K Subrahmanyam) & N N Vohra Committee for analysing the lessons learnt and preventing future mistakes.
About Ministry of Defence
Union Minister – Rajnath Singh (Constituency – Lucknow, UP)
Minister of State (I/C) – Shripad Yesso Naik (Constituency – North Goa, Goa)
