Rajnath Singh urges private defence firms to make India technology hub

He assured private companies of the government’s full support in making India an innovation and technology hub, and one of the strongest countries in the world. He was addressing scientists, industry leaders, academia, start-ups, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and young entrepreneurs during Twaral, a workshop featuring the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and industry on “defence technology acceleration” in New Delhi.

Highlighting the DRDO’s efforts to promote a scientific temperament, Rajnath pointed out that the defence ministry’s Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme is providing up to 90 per cent of a project’s cost as grant support to eligible industries.

“The total support is up to Rs 50 crore, a good amount for any MSME or start-up to invest in defence R&D. Since its launch six years ago, 79 projects have been sanctioned, of which, technology has successfully been developed in 18 projects,” he said.

As part of the event, the defence minister launched “Dare to Dream 5.0” to encourage the next generation of innovators to develop transformative ideas for defence applications.

Rajnath felicitated the winners of “Dare to Dream 4.0,” in which innovators came up with disruptive solutions in the fields of countermeasures for drones; advanced acoustic systems to locate gunfire; directed energy technologies; cognitive listening devices; target-seeking and proximity sensing; free-space laser communication systems; and multi-terrain, multi-utility robots, among others.