NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday handed the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) greater financial autonomy by revising its delegation of financial powers to speed up trials, testing and the induction of indigenous defence technologies.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh released the revised Delegation of Financial Powers to DRDO, a framework that decentralises spending powers across the organisation's chain of command, earmarks funds for trials and testing, and simplifies the grant process for academia, industry and innovation programmes.
The government said the new framework would "facilitate faster production and induction of systems, platforms and technologies emerging from the R&D ecosystem into the Defence Forces."
DRDO currently operates through a network of 41 laboratories and five DRDO Young Scientist Labs, organised under seven technology clusters covering aeronautics, armaments, combat engineering, electronics and communication systems, micro-electronic devices and computational systems, life sciences and naval systems.
Until now, the layered structure meant that even routine R&D expenditure, such as vendor payments, release of funds for subsystem trials or approval of minor equipment purchases, often required multiple levels of clearance before work could proceed, delaying projects that already run over several years.
Under the revised framework, financial powers have been delegated to project directors and laboratory-level officials, allowing scientists to take spending decisions closer to where the work is being carried out.
One of the key changes is the creation of a dedicated financial provision for trial campaigns, tests and evaluations. Defence R&D projects often clear technological hurdles but get delayed during field trials, climatic testing and user evaluations, partly because funding had to be sought separately for each stage. The ring-fenced allocation is expected to remove one of the major bottlenecks between successful development and induction.
The framework also authorises DRDO to sanction pre-project R&D initiatives independently. Major weapons programmes generally begin with feasibility studies and technology demonstration projects before formal approval. Allowing such preliminary research to be funded without waiting for higher-level sanction is expected to help scientists assess and de-risk emerging technologies at an earlier stage.
Another major change relates to funding research outside DRDO laboratories.
The Defence Ministry said the revised framework provides "clear segregation of financial powers for grants-in-aid pertaining to Extra-Mural Research Projects, Defence Innovation Accelerator-Centres of Excellence, and Technology Development Fund projects under the respective schedules."
These three schemes support university research, start-up innovation hubs and industry-led technology development. They previously operated under a less clearly defined financial approval structure. The revised framework is expected to speed up grant disbursal to academic institutions, start-ups and private industry.
The move comes weeks after the Defence Ministry revised the financial powers delegated to the armed forces, raising spending limits by 100 per cent or more across categories such as operational procurement, medical and works projects, and indigenisation and R&D activities.
Rajnath Singh had then released the updated Delegation of Financial Powers for Defence Services, which governs revenue procurement, including medical and works projects. It was the first revision of the framework since 2021.
