Centre positive on setting up defence incubator in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, July 13 (IANS) Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has responded positively to setting up a defence incubator in Hyderabad.

Responding to a request from Telangana government, she agreed to consider setting up the defence incubator in T-Hub, the technology incubator set up by the state government.

According to Telangana's Minister for Information Technology and Industry K.T. Rama Rao, the Defence Minister has responded positively to a letter written by him, requesting her to set up a defence incubator in the city, considering the defence eco-system here.

Nirmala Sitharaman conveyed to Rama Rao that the defence incubator may be set up under the central government's Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDex) scheme.

Rama Rao thanked the central minister for her positive response. He hoped that this will give further fillip to defence and aerospace sector in the state.

The defence minister wrote that under IDex scheme, the central government may allocate funds to promote MSMEs, startups, individual researchers, research institutes and students in defence and aerospace sectors.

Rama Rao said the proposed defence incubator could be allotted space in the upcoming second phase of T-Hub. This facility could serve as a centre for prototyping and testing in defence sector and for skill development.

He said the defence incubator would give further boost to the ongoing research work in the defence sector in Hyderabad. He pointed out that several institutions in defence and aerospace were functioning in the city for many decades. These include 10 institutions in the government sector including DRDO, 25 manufacturers and over 1,000 MSMEs.

After formation of Telangana state, the government identified defence and aerospace as key sector and Hyderabad attracted several new investments over last four years.