Defence Ministry plans DRDO overhaul

After the removal of Avinash Chander as Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief, the Defence Ministry plans to overhaul the military research establishment by creating two separate posts of Secretary, Department of Defence Research and Scientific Adviser to the defence minister.

The secretary would be ex-officio director general of the DRDO. The post of the secretary would be senior to the post of the scientific adviser.

“We are thinking about splitting the dual position of the DRDO chief as Scientific Adviser to the Raksha Mantri. There should be two separate people for these two roles. Nothing has been finalised as yet,” a senior government official said.

After Chander was suddenly sacked two days ago, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said he recommended the missile scientist's ouster. But the minister maintained that he came to know about the sacking order from the media.

Talking to journalists last month, Parrikar stated he would thoroughly review the functioning of the DRDO that came under criticism from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its failure to deliver in time and the laid-back attitude.

One of the transformation plans is to give more financial authority to the directors general who head seven clusters of laboratories working in the areas of naval systems; aeronautical systems; armament and combat engineering systems; missile and strategic systems; electronic and communication systems; life sciences and robotics; and computational systems.

Interestingly, five of the seven scientists working as director general of the clusters are on extension. There are also five chief controllers, one of whom is a serving Army officer.

Other changes in the offing are creation of an empowered Defence Technology Commission; DRDO’s own commercial arm; renaming of director general, DRDO as chairman, DRDO and creation of five senior administrative grade posts along with 162 other posts.

In July 2014, then defence minister Arun Jaitley informed the Parliament that the DRDO moved a note seeking cabinet approval for these changes. 

The proposed changes come from the recommendations of a high-level panel headed by former science secretary P Rama Rao. The panel suggested a number of steps to transform the military research organisation.