The DRDO operates with 8,000 scientists and about 50 laboratories and has an annual budget of about Rs 20,000 crore. Traditionally, the DRDO chief has held the post of secretary-R&D in addition to the post of scientific advisor to the defence minister. The Prime minister’s Office (PMO) is spearheading the change, which is aimed at achieving better efficiency and ease of functioning of the DRDO. However, some believe it’s an attempt by the ‘IAS lobby’ to take control of the premier defence research agency and maintain its supremacy in MoD.

 “Bifurcating the post of DRDO chairman and secretary-R&D appears to be the need of the hour as the DRDO’s track record of meeting project deadlines has not been up to the mark. With lesser responsibility, the DRDO chairman will be able to devote more time and energy on defence programmes,” said a senior MoD official, adding that the success of any defence project depends on finance, utilisation of manpower and efficient movement of file within the bureaucracy.

In August this year, the Union government appointed scientist Samir V. Kamath as the new DRDO chief. Kamath took over from G. Satheesh Reddy, who was given the responsibility of scientific advisor to the defence minister. The Modi government had bifurcated the two posts in 2015.

The broad impression is that defence scientists are experts in taking technical decisions but not well-versed with financial and other administrative matters, and that this often leads to project delays. Also, DRDO labs have to depend on cadre from the Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services for financial and administrative tasks.

Another senior MoD official said a bureaucrat holding the post of secretary-R&D can manage administrative and financial tasks better than a scientist. He proposed that DRDO be managed on the lines of other scientific institutions such as ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre).

It is perceived that the reason for a large number of scientists approaching the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and high courts to challenge their service rules or appointments is their limited understanding of administrative matters. Moreover, by bifurcating the DRDO chief’s post, the government wants to have a holistic approach towards the private sector when it comes to R&D. In the current Union budget, the government has earmarked 25 per cent of R&D funds of MoD for the private industry, start-ups and academia.

The Narendra Modi government has taken several measures to boost indigenous defence manufacturing, through initiatives such as Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, and boost defence exports. MoD has set an ambitious defence exports target of Rs 35,000 crore by 2025.

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Speaking at the inauguration of Aero Innovation and Skill Centre (AISC) in Bengaluru, Reddy said: “As far as the drone sector is concerned, India is working on its application in defence and civilian sectors. We need to hand-hold the youngsters to boost innovations and the AISC is a way forward. The government is clear that everything should be made in the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call is very clear that we should make world-class products so that the world looks up to us. Today, in the defence and aerospace sectors, there are products which we earlier used to import but are now being made here.”

A part of the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), AISC Bengaluru will facilitate aspiring entrepreneurs and start-ups to conduct research and development in aerospace sectors. Around 15-20 start-ups will be part of the AISC as of now. The start-ups and entrepreneurs will be mentored by experts from the DRDO, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), officials said.

The DRDO chairman added that most IIT graduates used to go abroad for higher education and job opportunities even a decade ago, but around 75 per cent graduates are now opting to stay back in India and work in several sectors, such as aerospace and defence technology, among others.

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Addressing the DRDO fraternity, Chairman DRDO highlighted that the academic institutes, R&D organizations and industry need to work together on advanced and futuristic technologies to make India self-reliant in the defence sector.

”A number of SMEs and MSMEs are supplying small components to subsystems for all DRDO projects and have been nurtured by DRDO. Now they have become partners in all new developments. He stated that DRDO conducted a competition “Dare to Dream” for Startups and very enthusiastic responses have been received,” he said.

Next Generation Needs

In his speech, he also called upon DRDO scientists to focus on next generation needs including cyber security, space and artificial intelligence.

”The immense potential available in DRDO has been a catalyst for the development of industries in the defence manufacturing sector,” an official statement from the Defence Ministry said.

DRDO Chairman further said that the latter should make efforts towards strengthening long term ties with the Academia and aim to leverage the academic expertise available in the country and increase the synergy with them.

”DRDO should concentrate on applied research and translational research and then make prototypes from the applied research. The industry should be in a position to adopt these technologies and have necessary infrastructure, and scale these up to market with sustained quality,” he added.

He also underlined the need to focus on documentation and productionisation for faster induction and said that many new initiatives towards enabling the industry and empowering youth for Defence R&D will be taken by DRDO.

Chairman DRDO also launched an Online Industry Partner Registration Module to simplify the process of vendor registration. He released the DRDO Monograph on “Issues on Development of Communication Technology using Orbiting Satellites” and also the Environmental Safety Manual and Guidelines for Disposal of Life Expired Chemicals and Gases at DRDO Laboratories.

He stated that an eventful year has passed and a new one is about to begin and asked scientists to innovate and create for the Nation. He said that efforts of DRDO have given a quantum jump to India’s self-reliance in defence, contributing towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

COVID Countermeasures

He highlighted the contributions of DRDO during COVID Pandemic and said that nearly 40 DRDO laboratories developed more than 50 technologies and over 100 products on war footing to develop products & technologies for combating COVID 19 pandemic in India. These included PPE kits, Sanitizers, Masks, UV Based disinfection systems, Germi Klean and critical parts of ventilators leading to ventilator manufacturing in the country in a very short span of time. He further said that DRDO has established three dedicated COVID hospitals at Delhi, Patna and Muzaffarpur in a record time for strengthening the medical infrastructure. In addition, Mobile Virology Research and Diagnostics Laboratory (MVRDL) were developed to speed-up the COVID-19 screening and R&D activities at various locations for strengthening the COVID testing capabilities.

DRDO was established in 1958 with just 10 laboratories to enhance the research work in Defence sector and was tasked with designing and developing cutting edge defence technologies for Indian Armed Forces. Today, DRDO is working in multiple cutting edge military technology areas, which include aeronautics, armaments, combat vehicles, electronics, instrumentation, engineering systems, missiles, materials, naval systems, advanced computing, simulation, cyber, life sciences and other technologies for defence.

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