The DRDO would be managing projects worth Rs 80,000 crore in the next 10 years for the Indian Armed Forces, said V K Saraswat, Director General, DRDO. Referring to the need for self reliance, Saraswat said that indigenisation has gone up to 55 per cent now, compared with 30 per cent during the 1990s, and should go up to 70 percent in the next decade.
Inaugurating Suraksha 2013, the national defence expo, organised by the Swadeshi Science Movement, the DRDO and the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) in Kochi on Friday, Saraswat said that the projects to be completed include those related to combat system, aeronautics and missile technology. Underlining the need for producing employable engineers, Saraswat pointed out that every year DRDO requires about 400-500 engineers and scientists. The attrition rate at DRDO is less than two percent and during the past five years DRDO has lost only 140 engineers, he said. Science and Technology are the vehicles for growth and security. Security and national development are two sides of the same coin, he pointed out, and added that indigenisation and self-reliance cannot be achieved only through the efforts undertaken by the DRDO.
In his presidential address, NPOL director S Anantha Narayanan pointed out that technology should be useful to the common man. He hoped that the defence expo would be helpful in bringing the general public close to the defence technology sector. ‘Diamond Octave’, a coffee table book on the history of the NPOL, was released by V K Saraswat.
VPN Nampoori, president, Swdeshi Science Movement, Hibi Eden MLA, A Jayakumar, secretary general, Vijnana Bharati, Ramachandran Thekkedath, vice-chancellor, Cochin University, E V Radhakrishnan, secretary general, Suraksha-2013, Admiral S Madhusoodanan of the Naval Ship Repair Yard and Commodore S K Moorthy were present.