India-United States Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS X) launched in Washington DC, U.S.

Source: The post is based on the article “India-United States Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS X) launched in Washington DC, U.S.” published in PIB on 23rd June 2023

What is the News?

The US Department of Defence (DoD) and the Ministry of Defense launched the India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X).

What is India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X)?

Aim: To foster collaboration and innovation between Indian and US defence startups, promoting technological advancements in the sector.

Features: INDUS-X would spearhead several initiatives that will complement existing government-to-government collaboration.

– These initiatives include joint prize challenges for start-ups, roundtable events, mentor-protege initiatives between major primes and startups, formation of a Senior Advisory Group, academic and startup programming partnerships with universities and collaboration of startups with defence majors’ supply chains.

Led by: India’s Innovations for Defense Excellence (iDEX) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) are leading INDUS-X activities

Significance: This initiative builds on a commitment by the U.S. and Indian National Security Advisors in January 2023. They committed to launch an “Innovation Bridge” to connect U.S. and Indian defence start-ups as part of the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).