DRDO Overhaul On The Cards
NEW DELHI: An overhaul of India's premier defence R&D organisation is on the cards with the defence ministry aiming to give greater powers to cluster heads and creating a younger leadership, those in the know of developments say.
Days after the Defence research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Avinash Chander was unceremoniously asked to go, an official said Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is reviewing all of the behemoth's facilities.
"More power will be given to the cluster heads of DRDO. This will give them higher flexibility in financial matters and also enable better synergy," the official told IANS, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
DRDO has about 530 ongoing projects, with 136 being in mission mode. Some of these include the Agni IV and Agni V long-range ballistic missiles, the Nirbhay cruise missile, an airborne warning and control system (AWACS), the Arjun main battle tank and the Tejas light combat aircraft.
According to source, a change of leadership at the cluster level can also be expected as both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar have been pitching for younger talent.
Seven technology clusters of DRDO were created following a report of an experts committee - aeronautical systems (Aero); electronics and communications systems (ECS); missiles and strategic systems (MSS); naval systems and materials (NS&M); armament and combat engineering (ACE); life sciences (LS) and micro-electronic devices and computational systems (MED & CoS).
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