Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh gave away the awards to the winners of the ‘Dare to Dream 2.0’ Contest of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) in New Delhi on October 04, 2021. The Raksha Mantri gave away awards to 40 winners – 22 in the Individual category and 18 in the Startup category. He also launched ‘Dare to Dream 3.0’ to promote innovators & startups and provide a platform for the young ignited minds in the country.
Dare to Dream is a pan-India contest by DRDO to promote Indian academicians, individuals, innovators, and startups and provide a platform for the young ignited minds in the country, to develop emerging defence and aerospace technologies/systems.
The winners get technical and financial support from DRDO for realisation of their ideas under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme. Besides this, the minister also gave away DRDO Young Scientists awards for the year 2019.
The award was conferred upon sixteen DRDO scientists, under the age of 35 years, for their outstanding contribution in areas of their expertise.
On this occasion, three products/systems indigenously developed by DRDO were also handed over to the Armed Forces. These are:
- ARINC818 Video Processing and Switching Module: The module, developed for the Indian Air Force, was handed over to the Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sandeep Singh. It is a state-of-the-art module with high bandwidth, low latency, channel bonding, easy networking and will cater to 5th generation aircraft development programmes.
- Sonar Performance Modelling System: Developed for the Indian Navy, the system was handed over to Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Satish Namdeo Ghormade. It is useful for Indian Naval ships, submarines and under water surveillance stations etc.
- Bund Blasting Device Mk-II: The device, developed for Indian Army,was handed over to the Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen CP Mohanty. It is used to reduce the height of Ditch-cum-Bund obstacles to enhance the mobility of mechanised infantry during wartime.
