₹25,000-crore worth of projects are under design and development phase: Army chief.

The Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, said 39 projects worth ₹25,000 crore are under the design and development phase of the Innovation In Defence Excellence (IDEX) scheme, which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has created for achieving self-reliance toward military requirements.

During an interaction with media at South Block, the new army chief acknowledged the need to cut down dependence on military imports when felt during the assessment of the Russian-Ukraine war. He said that India is dependent on both the nations for some weapon and air defence systems.

According to General Pande, the government and MoD have taken many initiatives to encourage domestic private industry and start ups to participate in the opportunities created through the Make in India programme.

"To encourage new start ups and to encourage private industry to come forward, I must mention in the sphere of IDEX (Innovation in Defence Excellence), we already have 39 projects which have already been or which are already in the process, and these are under the design and development scheme to the tune of almost ₹25,000 crore," said the army chief.

The Army Design Bureau has also been created as the single point of contact to facilitate interaction with the private industry. "We have taken number of other steps in terms of hand holding the new start ups and the results are already evident. We have in the areas of drone technology, counter-drone technology, in the areas of software defined radios etc where already the role of private industry in the field niche technology has come to the fore and were very hopeful that in the future it will be a win win situation for both, the military as well as private industry now that the right conditions have been created".

HBL