NEW DELHI: Give us more hands, is the desperate message the beleaguered DRDO has sent out to the government, after facing flak from all sides for unending delays in executing military projects. Taking note, the Narendra Modi government has agreed to a human resources push.
The fast-vanishing pool of scientists was highlighted by DRDO chief Avinash Chander last week to PM Modi and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, resulting in the Central government agreeing to consider increasing the annual intake of young scientists in the organisation.
According to Chander, an average of 70 young, green-horn scientists were recruited annually by DRDO, whereas its requirement was close to 370 recruits a year.
This large requirement, he said, was for off-setting the depletion in the scientists’ strength in the DRDO, where an average of 100 scientists retire annually. Over and above retirements, the DRDO has faced resignations of about 70 to 80 mid-career scientists annually in the last few years.
“While the outflow of talent is about 170 to 180 annually, inflow is just about 70. The imbalance is too huge and it is not possible to manage it unless the sanctioned annual recruitment is increased to nearly 400 scientists,” a DRDO source said.
In response, Jaitley told the DRDO that the government had been apprised of the situation and that the proposal was under active consideration. “I assure you there will be a positive outcome on the proposal to increase the annual recruitment of scientists,” he said.
On July 18, Jaitley was in Parliament when he was asked by members about the DRDO manpower crunch. In reply, Jaitley said a total of 210 scientists had resigned from the DRDO in the last three years till March 2014. However, he said the rate of mid-career attrition was normal for any organisation and that to lose one per cent of the total manpower strength in a given year was a norm in any sector.
“The data is not alarming at all. For instance, in any organisation where senior scientists are working, people may go out for better job prospects. Some people may also go out because of personal reasons. But it is only when the number becomes extremely alarming and the functioning of the organisation suffers that it calls for a stronger reaction,” Jaitley said.He contended the resignations had been showing a diminishing trend.
Of the total staff strength of 7,702 scientists in the DRDO, 86 resigned in 2011. The next year, 67 out of 7,606 resigned and in 2013, 57 out of 7,574 scientists quit the organisation. The trend is that most of those who have quit are from mid-level, with some experience, but still having age to do productive work in the world outside DRDO.
The last time the DRDO got a manpower boost was in 2001, a good 13 years ago. “DRDO is hoping to get sanction to hire another set of people in the coming financial year. Discussions are on,” another official said. He said the organisation requires at least 2,776 scientists in the coming years.
A defence ministry official said a cabinet note on hiring another 5,000 scientists over the next few years will be put up soon. Jaitley had, the same day, told Parliament that at least 10 major DRDO projects, including the LCA Tejas aircraft and several key missile programmes, were delayed due to various reasons and corrective steps were being taken.
DELAYED PROJECTS
■ Light Combat Aircraft Tejas
■ Naval Light Combat Aircraft
■ Aero Engine Kaveri
■ Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft
■ Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile
■ Air-to-Air Missile Astra
■ Advanced Lightweight Torpedo
■ Dual Colour Missile Approach
■ Warning System for Fighter Aircraft