Air Marshal Manish Khanna visits Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Air Command Marshal Manish Khanna on Thursday visited the Technopark and interacted with industry leaders and startups with a focused interest in the defence and aerospace sectors. Technopark CEO Col Sanjeev Nair (Retd) received Air Marshal Manish Khanna and presented an overview of the states IT sector and about the Kerala Defence Innovation Zone (K-DIZ). Kerala stands as Indias most digitally empowered state where a thriving startup ecosystem, cutting-edge digital infrastructure, world-class institutions and a deep pool of innovators come together to shape the future of technology, said Colonel Sanjeev Nair (Retd) during his presentation. With K-DIZ enabling a strong Industry-Academia-Armed Forces connect, Kerala is poised to transform defence innovation. As innovators gain deeper insight into the challenges faced by our Forces and leverage opportunities like iDEX and TDF, the state can emerge as a premier hub, attracting leading private defence and aerospace players from across the country, he noted. Impressed by the strength of Keralas digital ecosystem, Air Marshal Khanna, during the interactive session, responded to the collaboration possibilities raised by industry leaders and noted that the Air Force offers substantial avenues for startups to engage with the aerospace and defence sectors. Startups and companies in the aerospace domain can reach out to the Regional Aerospace Innovation Division (RAID) for guidance, user perspectives and insights into operational challenges. An IAF officer from RAID will also participate as a panellist at the upcoming Huddle Global event, where he will share deeper inputs on aerospace design, innovation and indigenisation, and outline emerging opportunities for collaboration, said Air Marshal Khanna. He added that, as part of the stakeholder mapping under K-DIZ, the entity from IAF could be RAID.
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