India’s Ministry of Defence and the U.S. Department of Defense held the the first meeting of the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) Senior Advisory Group on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by U.S. Department of Defense Spokesperson Lt. Col. Martin Meiners. According to Colonel Meiners’ statement, “DIU and iDEX announced topics for the first two joint challenges, focused on undersea communication and maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.” These challenges will be opened up to start-ups later this month.
The virtual meeting was co-chaired by the U.S. Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Director Doug Beck and Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Southeast Asia Lindsey Ford along with the Indian defence ministry’s Joint Secretary (Defence Industries Promotion), Anurag Bajpai.
Colonel Meiners said in the statement, “Aligned with the Roadmap for U.S.-India Defense Industrial Cooperation, the challenges provide for start-ups in both countries to develop technological solutions for shared defence challenges, culminating in financial awards for the most promising technology along with potential procurement opportunities. DIU and iDEX will open the challenges to start-ups later this month.”
The statement said the Senior Advisory Group welcomed recent initiatives in taking ‘the INDUS-X collaboration agenda’ forward. “On August 25, Hacking4Allies and IIT Hyderabad hosted a program for 50 Indian start-ups to equip them to commercialize, recruit talent, and expand. And on August 29, Pennsylvania State University and IIT Kanpur convened a virtual group of U.S. and Indian academics, government officials, and industry representatives to advance discussions on developing innovation ecosystems in emerging domains like AI, space, and cyber.”
