Defense sector offers big opportunity for startups and MSMEs

Karthik Rampal - Seminar in Adv Expo

Aurangabad: The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has taken an initiative to develop defense related products in India through iDEX. Startups and MSMEs in Aurangabad have a great opportunity for working with the companies in the defense sector through iDEX, said Karthik Rampal, project officer of Innovation for Defense Excellence (IDEX) institute.

He was speaking at a special session on 'Opportunities for Startups and MSMEs in Defense through IDEX' at Advantage Maharashtra Expo 2023 at Auric Shendra on Sunday. Speaking further, he said that the MoD is implementing special initiatives to promote innovation in the defense sector, through the Defense India Start-up Challenge (DISC 8) and IDEX Prime (SPACE), and prototypes in the field of national defense and security through the open innovation challenge. Startups, MSMEs and innovators are assisted to create and commercialize products and solutions. He informed that the Magic institute has been selected as a partner incubator for this purpose. Ashish Garde, director, MAGIC, elaborated on MAGIC's role as a partner incubator of IDEX to promote innovation related to defense sector opportunities for startups and MSMEs. Salil Pendse, Dushyant Athawale and others were present.