Introduction:
DRDO is today celebrating the 66th Foundation Day of its establishment. Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat DRDO paid floral tributes to the Missile Man of India and former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
Addressing the DRDO fraternity, Chairman DRDO extended warm wishes to DRDO employees and their families. He stated that an eventful year has passed and a new one is about to begin and asked scientists to innovate and create for the Nation.
Chairman DRDO highlighted the achievements of DRDO and said that during the year, several systems developed by DRDO have been delivered, inducted, or handed over to the users.
He expressed happiness that the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) has also been accorded this year for the induction of several DRDO-developed systems worth more than 1 lakh 42 thousand crores.
This is the highest ever accorded to DRDO-developed systems in any year. This constitutes a significant component of Aatmanirbharta in Defence Production.
DRDO
Upcoming Projects of DRDO:
He also said that DRDO filed more than 141 patents this year and 212 patents were granted and hoped that this number increase significantly in the years to come. He further stated that five Young Scientists Labs, started by DRDO in 2019, have now started to make an impact and will be our torchbearers in emerging disruptive technologies.
He mentioned that 15 DRDO Industry Academia Centres of Excellence (DIA-CoEs) have already sanctioned several projects and will enable DRDO laboratories to seamlessly transition some futuristic technologies from low TRLs to high TRLs.
Secretary DDR&D and Chairman DRDO in his address brought out that towards enabling industry, DRDO has been partnering with them for the realization of its systems. DRDO test facilities have been opened to the industries for utilization. He pointed out that so far 1650 ToTs on DRDO-developed systems have been handed over to Indian Industries out of which 109 Licensing Agreements for Transfer of Technology (LAToTs) were signed with Indian Industries during 2023 for DRDO products.
To make the Technology Development Fund (TDF) and allied schemes more effective, Hon’ble Raksha Mantri had constituted a committee headed by Dr Kakodkar, former Secretary DAE and Dr Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog to suggest ways to fund cutting-edge research like what DARPA does in USA. The committee has submitted its report and once Hon’ble RM gives his approval we will implement this scheme in 2024.
