The Government on Friday said that it has undertaken a series of initiatives for indigenous manufacturing of state-of-technology defence products.<br />'' <br />'' In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said that Indian Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured (IDDM) category has been accorded top most priority for procurement of capital equipment to promote indigenous design and development of defence equipment.<br />'' <br />'' The Minister further said that an innovation ecosystem for Defence titled Innovation for Defence Excellence has also been launched in 2018. It is aimed at creating an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace. He further informed that Defence AI Council and Defence AI Project Agency have been created and an AI roadmap has also been finalised for each Defence Public Sector Undertaking, under which 70 defence-specific AI projects have been identified for development.<br />'' <br />''The Minister also listed out several other measures in this regard and said that as a result of these initiatives, many state-of-art technology products like 155mm artillery Gun System Dhanush, Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Surface To Air Missile System Akash etc have been produced in the country during the past few years.