“Startups are going to be an important part of our defence ecosystem. Users like Army and Air Force want them to identify problems and seek ways to resolve them,” Dr Ajay Kumar, Secretary, defence production said. A high-level team of officials from the defence production will soon visit Maker Village, India’s largest electronic hardware incubator, which may pave the way for startups from Kerala to enter the defence ecosystem

KOCHI; A high-level team of officials from the defence production will soon visit Maker Village, India’s largest electronic hardware incubator, here, which may pave the way for startups from Kerala to enter the defence ecosystem.

This was revealed by Dr Ajay Kumar, Secretary, defence production during his discussions with Prasad Balakrishnan Nair, CEO, Maker Village. The discussions took place on the sidelines of the second edition of Hardtech 2019, a national deep tech startup conclave organised here by Maker Village.

Assuring that he will open the doors for startups to defence production, Dr Kumar said the visiting team will comprise officials from Army, Navy and Air Force.

Earlier, addressing the gathering at the meet, Dr Kumar, said his office has, for the first time, been keenly watching startups for solutions of various kinds.

“Startups are going to be an important part of our defence ecosystem. Users like Army and Air Force want them to identify problems and seek ways to resolve them,” he said on Saturday, the concluding day of the conclave.

He recalled that a defence India Startup challenge the government launched last August received 520 outstanding proposals from new companies, much to the encouragement of the plan to leverage defence startups and connect them with the armed forces.

“I want startups from Maker Village to feature in the list of next edition of the defence India startup challenge,” he said. “It is high time startups explored sectors like aerospace and penetrate into new sectors.”