(This story was originally published in the Economic Times on 30/08/2018.)India and the US are finalising a proposal that will enable defence teams to visit and liaison with a cutting-edge defence innovation unit in Silicon Valley.The unit identifies and funds emerging military technologies. Final touches are being given to the proposal ahead of the ‘2+2 dialogue’, which will involve the defence and foreign affairs ministries of the two nations.The proposal, first made by the US side last year, will involve Indian teams coordinating with the US Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) in Mountain View, California.The plan is to engage with the newly set up Indian Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) that is looking to foster emerging technologies domestically for the armed forces and is modelled closely on the US organisation that has been operational since 2015.“A liaison has been offered with the Silicon Valley unit that is developing and identifying defence applications from the private sector. This can be a big opportunity to work together in future defence technologies,” an official aware of the developments told ET.The DIUx has identified and is backing a number of companies in the Silicon Valley that offer solutions in a range of areas from artificial intelligence to space, robotics and information technology.From the Indian side, the recently launched Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) is likely to be involved that has been created to foster an ecosystem for technology development in the defence and aerospace sector.Launched in April, iDEX is being managed by a Defence Innovation Organisation led by the defence production secretary that will identify Indian companies — from large corporations to start ups and research institutes — for funding and fostering of military technologies.The organisation has been funded with an initial corpus of `100 crore by state-run HAL and BEL that can later be augmented with other public sector units as well.This would be a significant new initiative since the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) that was launched in 2012 that identified six projects for joint development and production. While talks have progressed, no project has yet been inked between the two nations under the initiative.