New Delhi, June 15 -- The Defence Ministry has announced a support corpus of approximately INR 500 Crores for nearly 300 startups, MSMEs, individual innovators and 20 incubators under the partner network of DIO. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the budget of Rs 498.8 crore to iDEX-DIO for the next five years.

"The scheme aims to facilitate rapid development of new, indigenised and innovative technologies for the Indian defence and aerospace sector to meet their needs in shorter timelines; create a culture of engagement with innovative startups to encourage co-creation for defence and aerospace; empower a culture of technology co-creation and co-innovation within the defence and aerospace sector and boost innovation among the s...