Acclimatisation Boot Camp launched at IIT Hyderabad

Hyderabad: iTIC Incubator at IIT Hyderabad, in collaboration with iDEX DIO (Innovations for Defense Excellence - Defense Innovation Organisation), has designed a unique programme to acclimatize relevant civilian tech startups into defense applications. Acclimatization Boot Camp for Defense Startups was launched by Minister of Defense, Rajnath Singh, at DefExpo 2022 Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

The ABC for Defense Startups would be a four-month long programme and would select 10-12 startups in their first cohort. These startups would be connected to the knowledge partners, which include serving and retired armed forces. These mentors would understand the technology of the startup and connect the use case for the same in defense applications.

After narrowing down the problem statement mutually, a startup would build a prototype with the help of iTIC Incubator at IIT Hyderabad and run it through mentors to validate the solution. At the end of the boot camp, startups would be trained in writing proposals for grants and procurements. The aim of this boot camp is to acclimatize a startup with civilian technology, find a use case in defense, and help apply for grants and procurements for defense.

Rajnath Singh, while launching the programme, congratulated iTIC Incubator and iDEX teams and stated, "It is good to see iDEX and iTIC Incubator at IIT Hyderabad are collaborating and designing a new program. This will boost our defence ecosystem lot.''

Startups can apply to this programme at www.itic.iith.ac.in/abcd.

The deadline for applications is November 18, 2022, and the programme starts on December 8 onwards. Benefits for startups include feedback from the defense ecosystem, access to iTIC and IITH infrastructure, proposal writing for defense procurements and grants, and access to the defense market. Listing out these benefits to the startups under the programme, Prof B S Murty, Director IITH expressed his confidence in the success of the initiative and welcomed the startups to make use of this unique programme.