‘Swavlamban’, the maiden seminar of the Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO), was held at New Delhi on July 18th and 19th 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Shri Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister was the Guest of Honour. The two-day seminar saw the participation of the academia, industry experts, policy makers, think tanks, students and senior Government officials, in addition to the naval personnel. The session on innovation examined the Role of Industry, Academia and Policy in Accelerating Niche Technology Induction into the Indian Navy. The second session focussed on naval armament and discussed the Ways to Harness the Potential of Indian Industry to realise Aatma Nirbharta in this niche field. The third session focussed on aviation and examined the Future of Aviation in the Era of Algorithmic Warfare. The final session had the theme of indigenisation towards self-reliance and debated Means to Enhance Domestic Defence Production, Associated Challenges and Way forward.
The highlight of the seminar was the release of the iDEX DISC7 (SPRINT) challenges by the Prime Minister. SPRINT (Supporting Pole-vaulting in R&D through iDEX, NIIO and TDAC) is a collaborative project between the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) and NIIO aimed at developing at least 75 indigenous technologies / products as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
