GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

DEFENCE RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION

RAJYA SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2119

TO BE ANSWERED ON 17.3.2015

OVERHAULING OF THE DRDO AND DPSUs

2119. SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR:

Will the Minister of DEFENCE be pleased to state:

(a) Whether Government plans to overhaul the functioning of the DRDO and the Defence PSUs in order to realise Make in India programme targets for the defence sector; and

(b)  If so, the detailed plan and roadmap for the same?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF DEFENCE

(SHRI MANOHAR PARRIKAR)

(a) & (b):  The functioning of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) was reviewed by a Committee headed by Prof. P. Rama Rao.  DRDO has accepted several recommendations which inter-alia include creation of Seven Technology Domain based Clusters headed by Director’s General; Restructuring of DRDO HQrs; Creation of Directorate of Quality, Reliability and Safety (QR&S); increase in budget for Extramural Research; creation of empowered Defence Technology Commission (DTC); creation  of a Commercial Arm of DRDO; creation of 5 Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) posts along with 162 other posts for full scale implementation of Integrated Financial Advisor (IFA) Scheme etc.

Recently, a review of all DRDO Projects along with the three Services, OFB and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) has been carried out so as to realign the focus towards the “Make in India” Programme.  Also, more than 1000 small, medium and large Indian industries have been involved in the development and product ionisation of products for the delivery to the Services.

With the objective of achieving self-reliance in defence production, the DPSUs have been continuously modernizing and upgrading their capabilities and widening their product range.  Some of the DPSUs have also collaborated with DRDO and other R&D institutions in this regard.  There is also increasing emphasis on partnerships of DPSUs with the private sector for sourcing various components so that DPSUs can play the role of system integrators and become more competitive.

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