Recent conflicts have shown that innovation is not just a word; it is a mindset, it is the spark that drives progress and shapes the future, said Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on Thursday at the Idea & Innovation Competition and Seminar of the Indian Army, 'Inno-Yoddha 2024-25', in Delhi.
Congratulating the participants of the event, General Dwivedi said, “Behind each idea, there are countless hours of thought, research, and testing, a testament to their determination to contribute to the force and the nation”.
Inno-Yoddha is an annual event conducted by the Indian Army to identify in-house innovations to mitigate existing capability voids, enhance the operational, logistics, and training capabilities, and increase the operational effectiveness of the force.
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Indian Army faces several operational challenges, aggravated by the vagaries of terrain, climate, and adversarial threats. The Army promotes in-house innovations, which are based on the challenges experienced by the troops in the field. Hence, the solutions they bring are driven by the challenges they face in their respective domains.
'Inno-Yoddha 2024-25' was conducted as a competition and facilitated fresh ideas and novel solutions, encouraging soldiers to think out of the box. The selected innovations are taken forward through product improvement by Research and Development (R&D) / Design and Development (D&D) / Army Technology Board (ATB) projects and base workshops. “Post successful upgradation and ruggedisation, the technology is transferred to the industry to meet the requirements of industrial grade bulk produced product for the Indian Army. This endeavour also promotes efforts of the Indian Army towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’,” the defence ministry said in a release.
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As many as 22 top innovations displayed during the event were felicitated by General Dwivedi. These will be taken forward for production under the aegis of Army Design Bureau to fulfill the requirements of field formations.
Over the past four years, the event has fostered significant innovations, which included the filing of 26 IPRs and the successful completion of 21 innovations.