- Today’s Startup revolution is led by deep tech companies, even in sensitive sectors like defence and space. And since this impinges on national security, it has required the government to be both proactive and involved.
- Innovative development and deployment of deep tech can tip the balance of power. Take the area of unmanned aerial surveillance and drones,they provide both defensive and offensive options without significantly raising the costs of escalating any conflict.
- Globally, we are observing increased government interest in funding, supporting, and promoting self-reliance in sectors critical to national security like semiconductors, space infrastructure and defence.
Bengaluru, March 9. The Indian start-up ecosystem is playing a pivotal role in achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics, Information Technology, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Interacting with the Media after inaugurating the Deep Tech Summit organised by Meity, GOI, in association with Government of Karnataka and National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), in Bengaluru, today, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, in order to reach this goal, several start-ups, entrepreneurs, and innovators are leveraging technology to come up with innovative solutions. The government has also been pushing innovators to come up with solutions for empowering the nation’s defence and security.
Indian start-ups are leveraging technologies such as drones, robotics, and artificial intelligence for enhancing defence efforts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a Budget allocation of Rs. 8000 crores towards skill development in various sectors, as an effort to come up with new cutting-edge solutions for the armed forces, a large chunk of this allocation will come into defence sector, Rajeev Chandrashekhar stated.
Defence has played a very important role in encouraging start-ups, lot of the technologies like drones, electronics are used by defence, creating lots of opportunities for start-ups. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made it a point that procurement processes should be simplified so that start-ups could also participate in bidding.
Citing an example of INS Vikrant, Chandrasekhar said almost 90 percent of electronics in INS Vikrant is designed in India. In cutting edge technologies in Defence, Indian Start-ups are doing very well and are contributing immensely for the growth of the sector, he added.
