Revamp of DRDO and Defence PSUs in the offing

A committee headed by Dr. P. Rama Rao has implemented the following recommendations aimed at a revamp of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and Defence PSUs.

The committee has made the following recommendations:

Nomination of Nodal Officers for structured interaction between DRDO and Services.

Introduction of Integrated Financial Advice (IFA) Scheme for financial decentralization.

Appointment of a dedicated Chief Controller for Human Resources (HR).

Creation of Seven Technology Domain based Clusters headed by Director's General, Restructuring of DRDO HQrs, Creation of Directorate of Systems Analysis and Modelling (SAM) and Directorate of Quality, Reliability and Safety (QR and S).

Efforts have also been made to increase budget for Extramural Research as recommended by the Committee.

Note has been initiated by DRDO for approval of the Cabinet for:

Creation of empowered Defence Technology Commission (DTC).

Creation of a Commercial Arm of DRDO.

Renaming of Director General, DRDO as Chairman, DRDO.

Creation of 5 Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) posts alongwith 162 other posts for full scale implementation of IFA 

At present, there is no proposal to revamp the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) to make them capable for developing advance weapons systems. The DPSUs have a strategy for strengthening their capabilities for producing and supplying various Weapon Systems and Platforms required by Defence Forces within the agreed timeframe. Some of the DPSUs have also collaborated with DRDO and other R and D institutions in this regard. With the objective of achieving self-reliance in defence production, the Ordnance Factories and DPSUs have been continuously modernizing and upgrading their capabilities and widening their product range.

Adequate resources have been made available by the government to DRDO for carrying out research and development works. Government continuously monitors the capacity utilization of DPSUs and emphasis is given for augmentation and modernization of their capacities to meet the growing demand of the Armed Forces. This information was given by Defence Minister Shri Arun Jaitley in a written reply to Shri Baijayant Jay Panda in Lok Sabha.