Inkers.ai bags the 1st prize at DRDO’s Dare to Dream Innovation Contest as the Technology Leader for Empowering India

Monalisa Das, Head of Strategic Initiatives – Inkers Technology Pvt. Ltd. wins the 1st prize in the DRDO Dare to Dream Innovation contest in the start-up category for designing a real-time 3D reconstruction technology to provide autonomous navigation and hostile territory 3D capturing features to a Swarm of Drones. Inkers Technology founded by Rohan Shravan and Manish Giri is a pioneer in cutting edge technologies since 2015. The IIT Kharagpur alumni duo express their proud privilege to be recognized as the Technology Leader in Empowering India by contributing in the development of advanced technologies for the Indian Defence System.

While presenting the award to Monalisa Das (Head- Strategic Initiatives and Innovation), Hon. Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh paid tribute to former President A P J Abdul Kalam and said “Let us get inspired by his life and work towards realizing his dream of making India a developed country through scientific advancement”. He also pitched for working on indigenous system towards making country “fully self-reliant”.

National security advisor Ajit Doval also called for “need-based” development of military technologies that targeted specific requirements of the armed forces and other organizations. “India’s security vulnerabilities are much greater today, and they are going to be much greater in times to come. This is the game where the winner takes it all, and there is no trophy for the runner-up”, said Mr Doval.

Since early stages of its inception Inkers has helped Crime and other law enforcement agencies by providing its AI technologies like large scale face reconstruction, image enhancement, and object tracking on ultra-large scale. This was Inker’s first foray into Defence domain, and it decided to focus on a critical piece of technology, which can revolutionize autonomous equipment.

Inkers has designed a real-time, precision 3D reconstruction technology using simple commodity cameras. It is designed to replace LIDAR and other expensive technologies which currently India imports. At 1/100th the cost, now India can make swarm drones and vehicles which can not only perform flight/path planning autonomously but can also capture precise geographical data while in enemy territories.

Army chief General Bipin Rawat, who was also present at the event said, “India is one of the largest importers of weapons and ammunitions, and after 70 years of Independence, it is not a very proud statement to make. But in the past few years, it is changing. DRDO is string to ensure our requirements of services are met with home-grown solutions”.

Monalisa Das expresses her bright ideas of how Inkers can help in shaping up the Defence capabilities utilising their Innovation and thanks DRDO for it’s new initiatives to broaden the horizon and work in collaboration with the best in industry. “It was a phenomenal experience interacting with Hon. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and National security advisor Ajit Doval, Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh, Chief of Air Staff Marshal R K S Bhadauria, Secretary Dept. of Defence R&D & Chairman DRDO Dr G Satheesh Reddy, eminent scientists, directors DRDO and senior officials of Ministry of Defence and I look forward to working with them closely ensuring that we contribute adequately in coping up with the rapid pace of the changing world” says Monalisa Das.