The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry today organized an innovation roundtable under the DRDO-FICCI Accelerated Technology Assessment and Commercialization Programme with the US Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter. Ten entrepreneurs spoke about their start-up models in sectors including aerospace, defense, and cleantech. The entrepreneurs comprised five companies to whom DRDO technologies were licensed under the DRDO-FICCI Accelerated Technology Assessment & Commercialization (ATAC) program and five start-ups that were supported under the DST-Lockheed India Innovation Growth Programme.
The technologies discussed included breakthrough innovations in the field of aerospace (DSP based Adaptive Control Algorithm to guide missiles developed by Cybermotion), defense (Short Range Surveillance Radar developed by DRDO and licensed to Bharat Electronics Limited; Explosive Detection Kit developed by DRDO and licensed to Vantage Integrated Security), and Cleantech (Geothermal cooling developed by GIBSS). The entrepreneurs present shared details of their innovative technologies, their enterprise’s vision as well as their entrepreneurial journey before the esteemed panel. The entrepreneurs also discussed several ideas and thoughts how bilateral cooperation between Indian and US Start-ups could be enhanced particularly in the field of Defense. The panel comprised Hon’ble Ambassador of the United States, H.E. Shri Richard Verma; Chief of Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Eric Rosenbach; Director General, DRDO, Dr. S Christopher; Secretary General, FICCI, Dr A. Didar Singh; and Mr. Phil Shaw, Country Head, Lockheed Martin India Pvt Ltd.