By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Sept 19:
75 prototypes will be showcased and a live demonstration of a few promising technologies, will be organised during “Swavlamban-2023”,the Indian Navy’s Naval Innovation and Indigenisation (NIIO) seminar, scheduled be held on October 04 and October 05 in New Delhi.
After 75 challenges for the start-ups/ MSMEs were launched as a part of the SPRINT’ initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July last year, 1106 proposals were received of which 116 were declared winners and over 100 developmental agreements between iDEX and the industry were concluded.
The “SPRINT Challenges”, are aimed at giving a boost to the usage of indigenous technology in the Indian Navy, and the Navy is committed to developing at least 75 technologies/ products as part of the ”Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” an official statement read.
SPRINT is a collaborative initiative being undertaken in conjunction with the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) and stands for Supporting Pole Vaulting in R & D through Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), the Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) and Technology Development acceleration Cell (TDAC).
After a detailed examination, 113 winners under the DISC 7 SPRINT category (with grants up to Rs 1.5 crore) and 5 winners in the DISC 7 SPRINT-PRIME category (grants up to Rs 10 crore) were declared. The development of prototypes is being progressed by all the winners. Conclusion of over 100 developmental agreements between iDEX and industry was achieved, with active engagement of the Indian Navy, iDEX and start-ups/ MSMEs in the last seminar.
Niche technologies are being progressed across the spectrum, including blue-green lasers for underwater applications; Autonomous weaponised swarms and Underwater swarm drones, multiple fire fighting aids; introduction of Artificial Intelligence (Al) for various uses and the development of an ultra-endurance small drone for maritime missions.