Leading Indian investors have pledged more than ₹200 crore: Rajnath Singh
The Hindu
Bengaluru
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that leading Indian investors have pledged more than ₹200 crore under the Innovations For Defence Excellence (iDEX) Investor Hub (iIH).
Mr. Singh launched the ninth edition of the Defence India Start-up Challenges (DISC 9) on cybersecurity with 28 problem statements and the iDEX Investor Hub.
He said iDEX has introduced several innovators to the market, leading to direct and indirect employment generation for our skilled, and semi-skilled workers.
“iDEX has helped the development of several home-grown technologies and has provided an important platform to showcase innovations and technological developments. Start-ups that have developed because of iDEX are also getting orders, which has fostered the start-up ecosystem in the country. iDEX has also given professionals the opportunity to understand futuristic technologies like Artificial Intelligence, augmented reality, and blockchain,” Mr. Singh said. The iDEX initiative is launched under the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), which is part of the Ministry of Defence.
On the occasion, DIO also signed MoUs with leading investors. MoUs were signed with ISRO, IN-SPACe, and ISpA to further strengthen the defence space. Another MoU was signed with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to potentially launch start-up challenges in the future.
Mr. Singh also released the Indian Army’s compendium of 110 Problem Statements for indigenous defence research, design, development, and manufacturing ecosystem.
The Problem Statements highlight Indian the army’s technological challenges and requirements in various domains ranging from armament, surveillance and fire control systems to niche domains such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, metaverse, and robotics, among others.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.
The High Court of Karnataka on Monday declined to interfere, at present, in the investigation against a Bharatiya Janata Party worker, who is among the accused persons facing charges of circulating obscene clips, related to “morphed” images and videos clips related to Prajwal Revanna, former Hassan MP, in public domain through pen drives and other modes.
The 16th edition of Bhoomi Habba was held on June 8, at the Visthar campus. The festival drew a vibrant crowd who came together to celebrate eco-consciousness through a variety of engaging activities, creative workshops, panel discussions, interactive exhibits and performances, all centered around this year’s theme: “Save Water, Save Lives.”