Given the availability of a sizeable defence industrial base, a startup ecosystem, and a considerable talent pool in southern states, a Regional Technology Node (RTN) of the Army Design Bureau (ADB) is being established in Bengaluru.
RTN-B will be inaugurated at ASC Centre & College, Bengaluru, on Monday.
RTN-B will leverage the location of the ASC Centre and College in the city as an interface with trade, industry, and academia with a specific focus on Information Technology, to coordinate advancements in technology for the overall benefit of the Indian Army on behalf of ADB and HQ ATRAC (Army Training Command).
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"ADB is one of India's milestone projects under the Indian Army's Make-in-India initiative in defence sector," an official statement said.
The role of the ADB, established in 2016, is to conduct technology scans, identify technologies for acquisition and development, and facilitate R&D efforts with industry, academia, defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
The intention is to provide inputs and enable them to understand user requirements while initiating design and development cases to promote indigenisation.
To further exploit the success of this model, it was visualised to have similar formal structures at the regional level to further extend the outreach and enhance the assimilation of technology in the Army, was stated.
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Regional Technology Node–Pune (RTN-P) was the first regional-level node set up under ADB to have an interface with industries in the Maharashtra region.
One of the major initiatives undertaken by the ADB is the publication of compendiums of 'Problem Definition Statements' that identified the core issues of concern for the Army.
"In 2018, nine Army Technology Board projects, nine Technology Development Fund projects, seventeen Make-II projects, and three 'Innovations for Defence Excellence' projects have been launched to support the development of technologies that can provide solutions to Problem Statements," according to the statement.
