Context: The Government of India has set up a Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) framework to boost India’s indigenous defence sector.

About IDEX Framework

• Innovations for Defence Excellence(iDEX) was launched by the Government of India in 2018.
• It is funded and managed by the Defence Innovation Organization(DIO).
• It primarily aims at creation of an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging Industries including MSMEs, start-ups among others.
• It also provides grants/funding to carry out R&D which has good potential for future adoption for Indian defence and aerospace needs.

About Defence Innovation Organization(DIO) 

• It is a ‘not for profit’ company formed under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013 by two Defence Public Sector Undertakings(DPSUs) namely HAL & BEL.The headquarters of the Defence Innovation Organisation is located at Bengaluru.
• It aimed at creating an eco-system to foster innovation and technology development in defence by engaging R&D institutes, academia, industry including MSMEs, start-ups and even individual innovators and provide them award based grant/ funding to carry out innovative development, which has good potential for future commercialization.
• The DIO would be funded by two Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), namely Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).