Former DRDO chief rues India's inability to build UAVs

Former chief of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) V K Saraswat today rued the country's inability to build unmanned aerial vehicles and commercial aircraft, and said "we have become slaves to the borrowed technology".
He said more than the government, it was the industry's job to accelerate the pace of technology in the aerospace sector.
"We have become slaves to the borrowed technology. Whatever changes you will do in the terms of policy in making things, unless you have intrinsic capability to design and keep pace with emerging technology in the aerospace and defence you will never be able to make things on your own.

"No wonder we take so many years to do... I am surprised our UAV programme Rustom 1, Rustom 2 keeps getting... We can't make a UAV in this country, how can we built a civil aviation aircraft," Saraswat, a member of NITI Aayog, said.
He was speaking at a seminar on "Opportunities In The Aerospace Sector and Policy Imperatives".
Rustom 1 and 2 are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), being developed by DRDO.

He said more than the government, it was the industry's job to accelerate the pace of technology in the aerospace sector. The former DRDO scientist added that the industry must not depend on the government all the time.

"Is the government responsible that we are not able to make a UAV aircraft. No, I don't think there is any policy that is required to accelerate UAV programme. Is the government responsible for not allowing the acceleration of the LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) production?
"It is intrinsically the industry's job to take measures to accelerate pace of production... And create yourself as a business entity. You cannot create yourself as an entity which will always depend on inputs from the government. We have to make the industry grow into all the areas of quality improvement, technology, skills to do that," Saraswat said.

To give a boost to the local industry, the former DRDO Director General said, there should be an embargo on the Public Sector Undertakings that unless 16 per cent of their product is manufactured by the industry around it, they shall not be allowed to manufacture.