BITS Goa Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship Society (BGIIES) in partnership with iDEX – Defence Innovation Organisation organised a Physical Outreach Event on Monday, 8th August 2022 at BITS, Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus.
The event supports the 7th edition of Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC) launched with 69 Problem Statements (PS) from the Indian Navy under DISC 7 (SPRINT) and the 1st edition of iDEX Prime (SPRINT) launched with 6 Problem Statements (PS) from Indian Navy under iDEX PRIME.
Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) scheme under the aegis of the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, and Government of India aimed at creating an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging Industries including MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes & academia. Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) a not-for-profit company as per Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013, manages and funds iDEX. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi unveiled ‘SPRINT Challenges’, aimed at giving a boost to the usage of indigenous technology in the Indian Navy, during the Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) seminar ‘Swavlamban’ in New Delhi on July 18, 2022.
Prof. Suman Kundu, Director, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus delivered the welcome address and stated that BITS Pilani will continuously support such initiatives through its talented faculty members and students. iDEX representative made a detailed presentation on how the 7th edition of DISC is planned. Shri. Sanjay Jaju, Additional Secretary (Defence Production) and CEO/DIO delivered the keynote speech (virtual). He stated that “iDEX has adopted an agile approach for product development that will accelerate innovations from the country.”
The other officers who spoke at the event were: Cmde AP Golaya (OiC – TDAC (Technology Development Acceleration Cell – the innovation arm of NIIO), and Cdr Rahul Verma, Indian Navy.
Prof. Mridula Goel, Joint Secretary – BGIIES presented the Startups showcase session. Innovations by Bactreat Environmental Solutions LLP, Kula Studio, PhD Scholars from EEE and Computer Science of BITS, Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus presented their innovations that have application potential in defence.
The event was organized in partnership with MAC33-Aero, Goa State Innovation Council, Goa Technology Association (GTA) and FiiRE Goa.
BGIIES supports the startups in the ideation stage/pre-seed stage with the pre-incubation program and the startups in the MVP/Seed stage with its incubation program and Innovation Lab at the BITS BIRAC BioNEST. The Society also provides funding to deep tech startups under the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme.
