Peeved at delays in the completion of armament projects and in order to improve the functioning of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the ministry of defence (MoD) on Thursday announced sweeping measures to overhaul the organisation including establishment of a Defence Technology
Commission to be headed by defence minister A.K. Antony. The government wants a “leaner” DRDO and is planning to merge some of the DRDO laboratories with other public-funded organisations. Defence sources said some of the life-science laboratories of the DRDO could be merged with other organisations as the government wants the DRDO to focus on its core strategic areas such as weapon development programmes. The government also announced the proposed development of a more advanced version of the Arjun main battle tanks (for the Army) and the Akash surface-to-air missiles (for the Air Force).
Pointing out that the measures would revitalise the DRDO, the MoD said, “The key measures include the establishment of a Defence Technology Commission with the defence minister as its chairman, de-centralisation of the DRDO management, making DRDO a leaner organisation by merging some of the DRDO laboratories with other public funded institutions with similar discipline, interest and administrative system, engagement of an eminent human resource (HR) expert as consultant to revamp the entire HR structure of DRDO and establishment of a commercial arm of the DRDO.”
The Defence Technology Commission is expected to decide on crucial areas of weapon development and the path that the DRDO should chart. The government proposes to decentralise the DRDO by creating “seven technology domain-based centres covering clusters of labs”.
The government has also proposed that the “new commercial arm of the DRDO would be created as a private limited company ...”. This commercial arm of the DRDO will deal with putting DRDO technologies to civilian use. The DRDO director-general will be re-designated as DRDO chairman and the director-generals of the seven proposed centres will report to him.
It may be recalled that several projects such as the Akash surface-to-air missile and the Nag anti-tank missiles that are part of the Integrated Missile Development Programme (sanctioned in 1983) were delayed along with other projects such as the Arjun main battle tank.