The Hindu Business Line : DRDO open to working with industry

The domestic private sector should work with the DRDO laboratories to leverage the technology strengths that have been built over the last half-a-century.

Hyderabad , Sept. 24

THE Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), a network of about 50 national research institutes, will take proactive steps to involve Indian industry in joint development projects, as a stakeholder.

"We will soon talk to the industry and I would meet the industry magnets to initiate concrete steps in this direction," the newly appointed Chief of DRDO and the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, Dr M. Natarajan, told newspersons here.A little later, our ideal model for indigenous technology development projects would be the consortium of DRDO labs, Indian industry and the user (defence or other sectors), in an equity-based mode, he said.

"We are also open to having joint management committees with representatives from all these stakeholders. The idea is to avoid repeat tasks, cut gestation, time-overruns and develop technology and products that are relevant," said Dr Natarajan, who took over the reins of the DRDO on September 1, from Dr V.K. Aatre.

The domestic private sector should work with the DRDO laboratories to leverage the technology strengths that have been built over the last half-a-century. To this end, Dr Natarajan said, "We are willing to offer technologies (except those restricted) developed in the DRDO labs virtually gratis, with the exception of documentation costs to the willing Indian industry."

When asked that such a move by the Defence Ministry, a few years ago, had not elicited much interest from the industry, Dr Natarajan said, "Yes, the response was not so good earlier, but both parties need to go further in building bridges."

He felt that in the areas of critical technologies and large systems integration the DRDO laboratories have to substantially assist the Indian industry, the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as the large public sector undertakings. This would help in hastening the systems development and technology absorption in industry.

Agreeing that time overruns in the large development projects of the DRDO was a matter of concern and was being accordingly addressed, Dr Natarajan felt that cost overruns were a myth in the Indian context.

On the issue of manpower, Dr Natarajan said the initiative to recruit about 1,500 bright engineers and scientists in five years started by his predecessor, was attracting good numbers. Already about 750 people have been recruited and the rest would be taken during the next two years, he added. Dr Natarajan, was in Hyderabad, familiarising with the activities of the 7 DRDO establishments.

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