Academic institutes, R&D organisations and industry need to work together on the advanced and futuristic technologies to make India self-reliant in defence sector, according to Satheesh Reddy, Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Addressing the 18th convocation of National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), virtually, he said academic institutions should be able to concentrate more on basic and applied research.

Research and development (R&D) organisations such as DRDO should concentrate on applied research and translational research and then make prototypes from the applied research. Taking inputs from the academic institutes’ research, R&D institutes should carry it forward and then make a prototype, Reddy said.

He said, the industry should be in a position to adopt these technologies and have necessary infrastructure, and scale these up to market with sustained quality

If these three are able to play their role, then the country will be able to flourish and self-reliant, he said.

There is also need to focus on the areas of materials technology and advanced manufacturing technology to be self-reliant, he said.

DRDO is working with 295 academic institutes in the country. The centres of excellence in many of these institutes are working on the futuristic areas. He said that DRDO has invested around ₹1,000 crore in academic institutes to do the research in these areas.

DRDO, which has tied up with Union Education Ministry, has selected around 500 students from various academic institutes to work in its laboratories on defence related research problems, he said.

Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Union Education Minister, spoke on the occasion.

K Umamaheshwara Rao, Director of NITK, welcomed the gathering and highlighted the achievements of NITK. K Balaveera Reddy, Chairman of the Board of Governors of NITK, presided over the convocation ceremony.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW