Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX)

Choose the right route

• Startup or MSME with a defence problem to solve: DISC, when a call is open. Check your majority Indian stake first.
• Early-stage critical technology: ADITI, which is aimed at technologies still in the early research and development stage.
• Working technology you want to show the armed forces: the Open Challenge.
• Incubator or accelerator: iDEX works through partner incubators that mentor applicants. Incubators can download iDEX's framework for partners from its partner page. That route is for incubators, not founders.

How applications work

• Log in to the iDEX portal, find the challenge category and click Apply Now.
• Applications ask for a single point of contact, entity details and proposal details.
• For the Open Challenge, submit a separate application to each nodal agency.
• For general queries and Open Challenge questions, write to idexdio@ddpmod.gov.in.

Check the dates before you plan

• Each call closes on its own last date. The listings checked on 13 October 2026 all showed as closed.
• The Open Challenge gives three different dates across iDEX's pages, so confirm on the portal before you apply.

How selection works

• Winners receive funding in tranches tied to milestones.
• A high-powered selection committee sets those milestones.

Check eligibility first

• Startups need majority Indian stake.
• Joint ventures and consortia of companies cannot apply.

Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) is a Ministry of Defence scheme, launched at DefExpo 2018 and run by the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), a not-for-profit company formed under the Department of Defence Production. It runs challenges that let Indian startups, MSMEs and individual innovators work on defence problem statements, and it is based in New Delhi.

How programmes work

iDEX runs its support through challenges rather than one open application. Its Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC) and ADITI calls are built around problem statements. In the Open Challenge, innovators showcase their own technologies to the armed forces, and a separate application goes to each nodal agency they approach.

Selected applications are funded in tranches, released on milestones that a high-powered selection committee decides. iDEX's material describes the form of that funding in different ways. Its guidance on winners describes grant support for DISC and Open Challenge winners, its application guidance says selected applications are funded in the form of equity or other relevant structures, and its ADITI scheme document describes support as a grant covering part of the product development budget. This page does not settle which description holds, so check the terms of a specific call before you plan around one.

Its scheme documents set budget periods that end in FY 2025-26, and its pages do not state a later period. The challenge listings checked on 13 October 2026 all showed as closed, including DISC-14 (last date 4 May 2026), DISC 12 Re Open (15 July 2026) and ADITI 4 (4 May 2026).

Who can apply

DISC is open to Indian startups with majority Indian stake, and to MSMEs and individual innovators. Research and academic institutions can apply through the individual innovator category. Joint ventures and consortia of companies cannot apply. iDEX's application guidance encourages individual innovators to apply, while its ADITI scheme document says they must register as a startup or MSME after selection. Both statements stand, so check the terms of the call you want.

Facilities

Selected applicants may be supported with access to defence testing facilities and experts for their product or technology development. The pages do not name those facilities, so none are listed here as iDEX's own. Selected applicants may also be given entry to accelerator programmes run by iDEX partner incubators.

Scale

The figures below are iDEX's own and have not been independently checked. In March 2026, at the National Defence Industries Conclave 2026, iDEX announced 107 problem statements, 82 under DISC-14 and 25 under ADITI 4.0. Its investor hub page says it has signed MoUs with eighteen investors. Its ADITI partner page lists six ADITI partner incubators. Its ADITI scheme document reports 13 procurement contracts between the armed forces and iDEX winners. Its pages give different counts of partner incubators, so this page gives no single figure.

Who runs it

DIO is a Section 8 company under the Companies Act 2013, formed under the aegis of the Department of Defence Production in the Ministry of Defence. iDEX functions as its executive arm. Its founder members are the defence public sector undertakings HAL and BEL. The Atal Innovation Mission partnered with the Ministry on the Defence India Startup Challenge. Careers are listed in the site's main menu.