Defence production likely to open up for Kerala start-ups.

A high-level team of officials from the Department of Defence Production will soon visit Maker Village, India’s largest electronic hardware incubator here, which may pave the way for start-ups from Kerala to enter the Defence ecosystem.

This was revealed by Ajay Kumar, Secretary, Defence Production, during discussions with Prasad Balakrishnan Nair, CEO, Maker Village. The discussions took place on the sidelines of the second edition of Hardtech 2019, a National Deeptech Startup Conclave organised by Maker Village. Promising to open the doors for start-ups to defence production, Kumar said the visiting team will have officers from the army, navy and air force.

Earlier, addressing a gathering, Kumar said his office has, for the first time, been keenly watching start-ups for solutions of various kinds. “Start-ups are going to be an important part of our Defence ecosystem. The army and air force want them to identify problems and seek ways to resolve them,” he said.

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 start-ups and connect them with the armed forces.

Meanwhile, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has initiated a purchase order of advanced spray coater developed by Delgado Coating and Technology Solutions, incubated at Maker Village.

The advanced spray coater can slash the production cost by 30 per cent compared with the current technology.

HBL