Dissent Overruled: Revamp of

Sometime last year the Indian Government had ordered a nine-member committee of experts under Prof K VijayRaghavan to review and redefine the role of the Department of Defence (R&D) and DRDO and submit a report within three months. Prof K VijayRaghavan is former Principal Scientific Advisor. The major issues addressed by the committee include:
Restructuring and redefining the role of Department of Defence (R &D) and DRDO, as well as their relationship with each other and with academia and industry.
Maximise academia, MSME, and start-up participation in the development of cutting edge technologies.
Attract and retain high-quality manpower, including a system of project based manpower by a proper system of incentives and disincentives, with strict performance accountability, and weed out the non-performers.
Utilise the expertise of NRIs/foreign consultants, inter-country collaborations for development of cutting edge and disruptive defence technologies.
Modernise administrative, personnel and financial systems to achieve speedier implementation of projects.
Rationalisation of laboratory structures and their performance evaluation process
There were observations on the committee’s report, however, the government chose to go ahead with the implementation of the recommendations by 31 August, 2024.
Views were sought of Dr S Gurupasad, a retired DRDO Director General, with our previous interview of the subject having hosted Lt Gen Subrata Saha, retired Deputy Chief of Army Staff, who was a part of the nine member committee.
Dr. S Guruprasad explained that DRDO was structured by amalgamation of laboratories that came with their own cultures. He also pointed out that it requires time for a young scientist to gain intimate understanding of his area of research and possibly spend a lifetime in a narrow bandwidth to pioneer a new development. Research cannot be strictly timebound. It needs flexibility in planning and also financial outlays. Such issues as removing deadwood is required, but has rarely been practiced.
Guest Dr. S Guruprasad. Retired Director General and Distinguished Scientist, DRDO.
Host Brig SK Chatterji (Retd). Editor Bharatshakti
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