In a first of its kind of reverse technology sharing between India and the US, an innovative Explosive Detection Kit developed by Indian scientists would be manufactured in America and sold globally for quick detection and identification of combinations of explosives.
The India-developed US-manufactured Explosive Detection Kit (EDK) was launched at the US Chamber of Commerce building in Washington — a block away from the White House on Friday.
This was probably for the first time that technology developed by the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) was being manufactured and marketed in the US, officials and industry partners said.
“We are hoping that (technology transfer) would be a two-way street,” former US defence secretary William S. Cohen said, adding that this is a very significant step. He described it as a very “excellent example” of reverse technology transfer.
Being commercialised as part of a programme called DRDO-Ficci Accelerated Technology Assessment and Commercialisation (ATAC), the two sides have entered into a licencing agreement with a US-based-firm Crowe and Company of South Carolina for manufacturing the kit.
Developed by a constituent DRDO laboratory, High Energy Material Research Laboratory in Pune, the EDK is developed for quick detection and identification of explosives-based on any combination of nitro-esters, nitramines, trinitrotoluene, dynamite or black powder.