Post the landmark launch of the Kerala Defence Innovation Zone at Huddle Global on 29 November 2024, a panel discussion was held on the theme, "Opportunities for Startups/SMEs/Innovators for Defence Entrepreneurs.” Col Sanjeev Nair (Retd), CEO Technopark, moderated the session and set the context by giving the genesis of Kerala Defence Innovation Zone.
The insights of the TDF and iDEX scheme were brought out by Shri Ram Prakash, Addl Director TDF, and Gp Capt Rohit Kaura (Retd), Program Director DIO-iDEX, respectively. Col Prashant Sharma from Pangode Brigade and Wg Cdr Sanjeev Kumar from Southern Air Command gave the user perspective and advocated the need for a strong defence, industry, and academia interface. The budding defence entrepreneurs, Mr. Johns T Mathai, Co-Founder, EyeROV, and Ms. Lakshmi Das, Co-founder, Prophaze brought out their experiences and learnings in the iDEX/TDF journey.
In the concluding remarks, CEO Technopark echoed the learnings brought out by Mr. Johns Mathai – it needs patience, frequent interactions with armed forces, a definite intent to evolve a prototype that meets military standards, and then the results will translate to big orders. He added that the Defence and Aerospace challenges launched under the TDF/iDEX scheme are big opportunities for young innovators and startups, and for the challenge winners, there is immense hand-holding by TDF/iDEX and our Defence ecosystem.
The event had a special mention of how a passionate innovator from Kerala, Mr. Jayesh Natarajan has received an Indian patent for his twin-magazine rifle design and now the talks are on with the Army Design Bureau to take it further. The journey for him was not easy, and it's based on his grit that he still relives his passion.
The Kerala Defence Innovation Zone was evolved to channelise such innovators and startups from Kerala, who look to make inroads into defence innovations. K-DIZ meets the dual purpose of fostering defence entrepreneurs by giving deeper outreach of challenges of armed forces to the environment and meets the user aspirations of armed forces to get innovative solutions from startups.
The panel discussion on 29 November at Huddle Global witnessed strong participation from officials from defence, academia, startups, and individual innovators.