India to develop its own futuristic computer operating system

Dr V K Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, said the DRDO has just set up a software development centre each here and in Delhi, with the mandate develop such a system.

This "national effort" would be spearheaded by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in partnership with software companies in and around Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi as also academic institutions like Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and IIT Chennai, among others.

"There are many gaps in our software areas; particularly we don't have our own operating system," said Saraswat, also Director General of DRDO and Secretary, Defence R & D.

India currently uses operating systems developed by western countries.

"So, in today's world where you have tremendous requirements of security on whatever you do...economy, banking and defence...it's essential that you need to have an operating system," he said.

Referring to reports of cyber attacks in recent times and "susceptibility" of internet, he noted instances of "data taken away by adversaries".

"We have to protect it (data)," Saraswat said, adding, "Only way to protect it is to have a home-grown system, the complete architecture...source code is with you and then nobody knows what's that."

He said DRDO is putting in place a dedicated team of 50 software professionals in the Bangalore and Delhi software development centres to accomplish the task.

Saraswat also said the DRDO has put in place a "complete framework" on the proposed commercial arm, which is currently in the process of securing necessary government approvals and is expected to be operational next year.

He said this arm would customise and provide to the civil population the spin-offs of defence technologies through select industry partners, which would be production agencies.