Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh on August 19, 2021 launched Defence India Startup Challenge 5.0 (DISC 5.0) under Innovations for Defence Excellence – Defence Innovation Organisation (iDEX-DIO).
- Thirty five Problem Statements – 13 from the Services and 22 from Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) – were unveiled under DISC 5.0.
- These are in areas such as Situational awareness, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Aircraft-trainer, Non-lethal devices, 5G network, Under-water domain awareness, Drone SWARMS and Data Capturing.
- The Defence Minister expressed confidence that iDEX will support five times more start-ups over the next five years as the aim is to accelerate progress, reduce costs and complete procurement in a time bound manner. For this, he said, there is need to adopt the concept of 5 Is (Identify, Incubate, Innovate, Integrate and Indigenise).
