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Nirmala Sitharaman likely to back J Manjula as next DRDO chief

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The research body has remained headless – though defence secretary Sanjay Mitra has been accorded additional charge – since incumbent S Christopher retired in June.

By Manu Pubby, ET Bureau|Jul 21, 2018,
With the race for the next head of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) heating up, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman is believed to be putting her weight behind a surprise candidate — Jillelamudi Manjula, the first woman director general of the body.

Government sources said that though Manjula — currently posted as the director general electronics and communication systems — is junior to several other scientists in DRDO, her name is in consideration after a strong push by the minister.

A decision on the next DRDO chief is expected to be taken by the appointments committee of the Union Cabinet in the next few days.

The research body has remained headless – though defence secretary Sanjay Mitra has been accorded additional charge – since incumbent S Christopher retired in June.
Manjula, who belongs to Andhra Pradesh, is not as experienced as other competitors, who have been shortlisted for the appointment but is the first woman scientist to be appointed to the senior post.
If selected, she will have an unusually long tenure as the chief that can stretch up to eight years, given past precedence when DRDO chiefs have been given an extension till the age of 64 years.

Another name doing the rounds is that of Pravin K Mehta, who heads the armament cluster of the research organisation in Pune.

 

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Destroy DRDO Institutions, Get Rewarded

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An open letter to Mr PK ,Chattopadhyaya RDE(E)

By

Rajendra Kale

Dear Mr Chattopadhyaya

Friends broke the wonderful news that you are back in your office a day after your retirement. I thought I must personally congratulate you.

Among the top management comprising officers who have gallantly delayed even the Golden Jubilee Monument Project of R&DE(E) by six years, you have achieved the unique distinction of successfully destroying a full Institution that was created by DRDO through some of us to bring in an element of accountability of Contracting processes in the Lab.

PDOC was DRDO’s response to the CAG audit report, CA No. 16 of 2012-2013 (Defence Services) that had detected 94% failures in R&DE(E)’s projects in 15 years and lamented that the Lab “did not even have a  reliable database of the projects undertaken”. The Report further said, there was no mechanism in place to assess the “accountability of personnel towards success or failure of the projects”, implying that recommendations for promotions were based on dubious considerations.

PDOC had brought in the long-awaited order. A small team in a short time created an ISO-compliant IT-enabled database from whatever project documents it could lay its hands on. This wasn’t easy given that each project group was treated like an independent kingdom by their directors and they guarded their dark secrets jealousy. But the real skeletons began tumbling out when PDOC scrutinized the contract documents. This is where, you, at the helm of the ISO compliance, came to rescue of the culture of great Indian corruption which holds us from what it takes to become a developed nation. I am sure Mr Parlikar, the lab director, also deserves a lot of compliments for your reappointment.

Best warm wishes

Rajendra

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Why devolving more financial powers to DRDO is good

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Devolving more financial powers to DRDO is good, but more must be done if it is to become efficient

By: FE Bureau June 29, 2018

The Centre devolving greater financial power to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will perhaps give the body some much-needed autonomy. To “enhance its (DRDO’s) efficiency and effectiveness”, the defence ministry has reposed greater decision-making powers with the secretary, defence research and development—who serves as DRDO chief—and its seven directors-general (DGs) who serve as cluster-heads for the broad areas of DRDO’s research-focus. The DRDO chief can now sanction projects/procurements up to Rs 150 crore (versus the `75 crore cap so far), while the DGs can sanction projects up to Rs 75 crore (up from `50 crore). However, India continues to be the world’s largest defence equipment importer while its defence research body has been pumping resources into developing dental implants and mosquito repellents. In fact, the Rama Rao Committee, in 2008, had asked the government to limit the DRDO’s research focus to just “core technologies” of “strategic importance”.

In March, Parliament’s standing committee on defence, headed by BC Khanduri, hauled up the DRDO for serious delays in projects and wastage of tax-payers’ money by ditching projects mid-way. The panel, in fact, suggested that independent agencies be brought in to conduct “scientific, technical and concurrent audit(s) of every ongoing project.” It said that project delays have become a “part and parcel of DRDO’s functioning”, citing how the LCA project was originally supposed to be completed by 2008, but, the date of completion has now been revised to June 2019. Similarly, the Kaveri aero engine project was supposed to be completed by 1996, but was only completed by 2009. Such delays not only have a cost implication, but also keep the armed forces waiting for critical capabilities. The panel said that it “understands that research activity is an open-end programme and closing a project midway is a possibility”, but, this should not be allowed to become a regular practice, as it has with DRDO. The DRDO’s own dysfunction aside, the fact is that it is also hobbled by lack of adequate funding—it receives just 5-6% of the defence budget, while the comparable figure for China is 20%. So, greater decentralisation is certainly welcome, but, the government needs to do much more if DRDO is to become truly efficient.

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Nirmala Sitaraman gave more teeth to corrupt DRDO

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Latest step taken to enhance financial powers of DRDO officials without fixing the accountbility and ignoring all the .corruption complaints, right from Dr V K Sarswat to various, C C R&D, DG, like Dr K D Nayak, Dr Selvamurthy, Dr Guru Prasad, Director s like  Dr.A K Saxena, Dr Lokendra Singh big Drama of Bio toilet, the list of very long

It seems Nirmala Sitaraman not having time to have a look at the piled up  files of CVO, MoD and Director Vigillang & Security, DRDO

Or is she repeating the history of Ministry of defence when Congress government replaced Sh Pranav Mukherji with Sh Antony with some unseen motives.

Jai ho

27-June-2018 16:10 IST
Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Defence

To enhance efficiency and effectiveness of Defence Research establishments,
Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman has decided to delegate greater
financial powers to various authorities. This wind of change in Defence
Research and Development (R&D) is intended to neutralise the ill-effects of
over-centralisation and facilitate quicker decision making. This is in line with
similar financial delegations made to Armed Forces in the last one year. The
delegated powers now stands enhanced as under:-
Powers of Secretary, Defence R&D to sanction projects and for
procurements enhanced from Rs. 75 Crore to Rs. 150 Crore and for the
Directors General (DG) enhanced from Rs. 50 Crore to Rs. 75 Crore
Enhancement of powers for Proprietary Article Certificate (PAC) cases
From Rs. 50 Crore. to Rs. 150 Crore for Secretary Defence (R&D);
From Rs. 25 Crore to Rs. 75 Crore to DGs;
From Rs. 2 Crore to Rs. 5 Crore for Lab Directors.
Enhancement of powers for Single Tender cases
From Rs. 50 Crore to Rs. 75 Crore for Secretary Defence (R&D);
From Rs. 25 Crore to Rs. 37.5 Crore for DGs;
From Rs. 1 Crore to Rs. 2.5 Crore for Lab Directors.
All Competent Financial Authority empowered to reallocate funds, reduce
and enhance costs of projects/programmes within their delegated powers.
The powers of Director General (DG) have been enhanced from Rs. 3
Crore to Rs. 5 Crore for sanctioning Research projects to Universities,
Technological Institutions and to Indigenous Defence Industry under the
Technology Development Fund Scheme of DRDO.
Powers of post-contract management and maintenance support in respect of
contracts for which CFA is the Ministry of Defence, have been delegated to
Directors General of DRDO in line with the delegations already made to
the Armed Forces.
Delegations for Hygiene and Maintenance Contracts, training expenses,
miscellaneous and contingent activities have been rationalized and
enhanced to ensure that sanctions are given at the Director and DG levels
with minimal flow of files to DRDO HQ.
Consequently, the powers for sanctioning of projects and for procurements that
were hitherto with the Secretary Defence R&D have now been delegated to the
Directors General of DRDO and the delegation to the Secretary, Defence R&D
has been doubled, A number of powers relating to day-to-day functioning that
were centralized at DRDO HQ have now been delegated to the DGs and Lab
Directors. The delegations also bring flexibility in Universities and by
indigenous defence industry. All the delegations that had been made in respect
of the services have also been extended to the DRDO.
The Director Generals of DRDO has expressed their satisfaction at this major
initiative by the Government and have opined that these forward-looking
measures would ensure that majority of the decisions relating to
implementation and functioning would largely be taken within the technology
clusters whereas policy issues would primarily come to the Government. Given
the geographically dispersed Clusters and Laboratories, this will be greatly
reduce file movements to and from the DRDO HQ at New Delhi and facilitate
faster decision-making.

 

Drdo

As S Christopher completes term, DRDO to remain headless for 3 months

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By Manu Pubby, ET Bureau|Updated: May 29, 2018

Christopher was in May last year given a one-year extension. His extended term ended today.

NEW DELHI: The Defence Research And Development Organisation (DRDO) could stay headless for as many as three months with the government failing to find a replacement for incumbent Selvin Christopher who retired on Monday. Efforts till late to grant him another extension in service could have delayed the appointment of a successor, with a search committee looking at probable names to recommend to the cabinet appointments committee.
Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra will hold additional charge of the organisation till the government approves a scientist to take over the top position, an official notification said.

The past few weeks has seen jostling for the post. DRDO has an annual budget of `17,861 crore. Outgoing chief Christopher who was already on a year’s extension of service beyond the prescribed age but had been hoping for yet another extension.

This search committee list is expected to include the three senior most scientists of DRDO, besides the first woman to have made it to the post of director-general in the organisation. Sources said that those in the fray include missile scientists G Satheesh Reddy, the scientific advisor to the defence minister and the head of the Brahmos missile project, Sudhir Mishra.

While Mishra and Reddy come from the missile scientist community that has traditionally ‘ruled’ DRDO, also in contention is Pravin K Mehta, who heads the Armament cluster of the research organisation from Pune. A surprise entrant to the selection shortlist could also be DG Jillelamudi Manjula who heads the Electronics & Communication Systems vertical at DRDO.
As reported by ET, several top level appointments are pending at the defence ministry. The crucial posting to Northern Army Commander is still to be announced

Drdo

Nepotism – Never ended Business of DRDO

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Some scientists from IRDE, DRDO, Dehradun raised voice against the Recruitment Assessment Centre (RAC), DRDO for unethical practice in conducting assessment of scientists Grade scientist C to E.

Recently the interview was held from 15 May to 19 May 2018. Dr A K Gupta was core member, so he was in the board for all days. Total 29 candidates from IRDE were there in this board.

On 15 May 02 Sc C to Sc D

On 16 May 10 Sc C to Sc D

On 17 May 08 Sc D to Sc E

On 18 May 03 Sc D to Sc E

On 19 May 06 Sc E to Sc F

Dr AK Gupta was core member so he had extra power to manipulate the results and he did same.

As Dr AK Gupta (Ex Director) was the core member of instrumentation Board for IRDE. It is clearly against the rules and law. Ex IRDE it was observed that Dr Gupta was partial with some candidates and gave them extra advantage to get through. This modus oprendi is also very common practice of RAC to promote incompetent scientists by custom designing of interview board.  Sh Arun Jaitley then charge of Defence Minister had ordered action against two senior scientists in a case in DRDO on July 2017

As promotion is related to financial gain as well as morale booster for each DRDO scientist and give major impact on his performance.  It should be asked from  RAC (Coordinator for Assessment 2018 Mrs Rajinder Kaur Sokhi, Sc G   that   how & why she did this? Hopefully she gets proper approval from Director RAC in writing. It is clear cut case of corruption and violation of rules.

See the dilemma of IRDE scientists on the issue.

महोदय,

निवेदन है कि RAC द्वारा Assessment बोर्ड 2018 के इंस्ट्रूमेंटेशन बोर्ड (Instrumentation board) में हुई अनियमितता के सुधार हेतु आप उचित कार्यवाही करें. IRDE  देहरादून के इंटरव्यू बोर्ड में IRDE  देहरादून के ही पूर्व निदेशक डॉ. अरुण कुमार गुप्ता को कोर मेंबर बनाने से बोर्ड की निष्पक्षता पर ही प्रश्नचिन्ह लग जाता है, जिसके परिणामस्वरूप पक्षपातपूर्ण निर्णय होनें की पूरी पूरी संभावना है, जो की भारतीय संविधान एवं प्राकृतिक न्याय के सिद्धान्त (Principle of Natural Justice) के विरुद्ध हैं ! RAC के संविधान के अनुरूप निष्पक्ष भर्ती और मूल्यांकन के लिए आवश्यक है की साक्षात्कार बोर्ड में ऐसे सदस्य हो जो की कैंडिडेट के परिचित या रिश्तेदार ना हो परन्तु कोर मेंबर श्री मान गुप्ता पूर्व निदेशक होने के कारण अभ्यर्थियों से भलीभांति परिचित हैं और कुछ वैज्ञानिको से उनके बहुत ही घनिष्ठ एवं मधुर सम्बन्ध भी हैं तथा कुछ से व्यक्तिगत वैचारिक दुर्भाव भी! जिसके परिणामस्वरूप उनके बोर्ड का कोर मेम्बर होने से साक्षात्कार का परिणाम अवश्य ही प्रभावित होगा, जिससे साक्षात्कार की निष्पक्षता पर ही संदेह हो जाता है जिसे नकारा नहीं जा सकता हैं ! इस प्रकार ये गठित बोर्ड ही पूर्णतया असंवैधानिक हैं और अभ्यर्थी वैज्ञानिको के भविष्य के साथ खिलवाड़ हैं !

मान्यवर, कुछ अभ्यर्थी वैज्ञानिक तो उनके घर में बतौर किरायेदार उनके साथ ही रहे हैं और उनके घर खाना तक बनाते थे, इस तरह वे उनके परिवार के सदस्य की भांति ही रहते आयें हैं ! इससे उनको इस बोर्ड में एक्स्ट्रा एडवांटेज मिल सकता है और उनका इंटरव्यू ख़राब होने के बावजूद वो प्रमोट हो सकतें है !

महोदय, ये निवेदन पत्र आपके समक्ष प्रस्तुत कर आपसे विनम्र निवेदन हैं की RAC की भूल को सुधारते हुए उपरोक्त बोर्ड को null & void घोषित कर IRDE के INSTRUMENTATION बोर्ड को पुन: निष्पक्षता के मानदण्डों को पूरा कर गठित करे ताकि साक्षात्कार में शामिल होनें वाले अभ्यर्थी वैज्ञानिको के भविष्य के साथ किसी प्रकार का अन्याय ना हो तथा मजबूरन हम अभ्यर्थी कों न्याय पाने के लिए माननीय न्यायालय की शरण में नहीं जाना पड़े !

आपसे पुन: अनुरोध है की हमारे हितो की रक्षा हेतु आवश्यक एवं समुचित कार्यवाही करे.

धन्यवाद,

जय हिन्द.

Drdo

DRDO whistle-blowers seek Sitharaman’s intervention

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Abhinandan Mishra
May 26, 2018 – Sunday Guardian Live

Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Arun Jaitley had ordered action against two senior scientists in a case in DRDO.

Whistle-blowers and scientists working with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have written to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, seeking her intervention in an alleged corruption case within the DRDO. Sitharaman’s predecessor Arun Jaitley had ordered disciplinary action against two senior scientists in this case, but no action has been taken yet. This newspaper is in possession of a correspondence that was shared by the whistle-blower with the Defence Minister. As per this correspondence, R.K. Jain (Director, Joint Cipher Bureau of the DRDO) and A.K. Singh (Director, Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences) were allegedly found to have been involved in “wasting” government money by conducting interviews for the promotion of scientists in DRDO, despite statutory rules barring such interviews. The DRDO had later stated that even though Rs 1 crore had been spent on calling 255 scientists for the interview, the results of the interview were not used to decide the promotions.

At the time of the interviews in 2011, R.K. Jain was the director of DRDO’s Recruitment and Assessment Centre (which takes care of recruitment and promotions), while A.K. Singh was the director of Directorate of Human Resource Development.

As per DRDO’s own admission, the amount spent on conducting similar interviews in subsequent years (2012 and 2013) was far less than what had been spent in 2011, though a greater number of scientists were interviewed—333 in 2012 and 376 in 2013. When contacted, Manish Bhardwaj, the spokesperson of DRDO, sought some time to respond and told this newspaper on 17 May: “The matter is being examined by a committee on the direction of Hon’ble Raksha Mantri. The committee shall submit the report in 3-4 days. After submission, DRDO would be in a position to provide the information sought by you.” However, no further information regarding the submission of the said report was shared by the spokesperson with this newspaper.

Official sources within the DRDO stated that no such committee was ever constituted in the matter.

The entire incident had come to light when a whistle-blower from DRDO first wrote to the Defence Minister and the Chief Vigilance Officer in July 2014, detailing how public money was wasted and that the whole process was used by the individuals concerned to indulge in alleged corruption.

“Instead of taking action against the two officials for their deliberate misconduct, DRDO rewarded them by awarding R.K. Jain with ‘Best techno managerial services/popular science communication award for his performance in 2011. A.K. Singh was promoted from the grade of Scientist F to the grade of Scientist G in 2011,” reads the latest communication to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. In June 2017, the then Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had ordered disciplinary action against Jain and Singh for causing a loss of Rs 1 crore to Government of India. “DRDO is known for using delaying tactics to shield officers. It deliberately sits on disciplinary orders of defence ministers to make sure that the officials in question retire without facing any punishment. They did this when Jaitley was the Defence Minister and are doing the same under Nirmala Sitharaman,” one of the whistle-blowers said.

Drdo

Army whistleblower alleges harassment

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Prateek Goyal – Saturday, May 26, 2018, 8:12 PM Sakal Times

“According to sources in Army, Dubey was shunted for reporting the security breach to Army Headquarters and CBI”

Pune: In a classic case of harassment of a whistleblower, who had exposed a security breach, the office of an Army officer was sealed on the orders of a high ranking Army official.
Earlier, on March 13, 2018 Sakal Times had carried a report that said the CBI was going to probe a Major General’s role in a security breach at VRDE.

As per the latest development, Lt Colonel NK Dubey found his office at the Ahmednagar-based DRDO’s Vehicle Research & Development Establishment (VRDE) sealed at around 5.30 pm on Tuesday evening. A letter was issued to him half an hour later, stating that Major General Ajay Gupta, Director of VRDE, has transferred him to the National Centre for Automotive Testing.

Despite the ongoing CBI inquiry against Gupta in the security breach matter, he was recently given an extension after completing two years at VRDE through an order issued by Secretary DD R&D and Chairman of DRDO Dr S Christopher on May 18, 2018. Surprisingly, within a two working days of this order, Gupta shunted Dubey out of his office.

According to sources in Army, Dubey was shunted for reporting the security breach to Army Headquarters and CBI. Dubey reported about a 30 minute meeting conducted by Gupta on February 15, 2018 with two foreign nationals and a non-resident Indian, along with officials of a private company, without taking clearance from the Directorate of Vigilance and Security, New Delhi, as is mandatory for DRDO officials.

Earlier, Dubey reported the security lapses at VRDE, including inadequate guard posts, unavailability of QRT vehicle, unavailability of routes to do perimeter patrolling, inadequate boundary lights, etc. to DRDO, after which a letter dated May 22, 2017 was written by Gupta to Army HQ to transfer Dubey. The Army headquarters, however, refused to do so. (Army HQ letter available with Sakal Times)

A source said, “Lt Colonel Dubey have been targeted for exposing corruption and corrupt practices. Previously also, in 2017, Major General Gupta kept him out of office for around two months despite Army HQ refraining him from doing so.” Source added that Gupta had received the letter on June 12 from Army HQ, but he sat on it till August as it was demi-official (person to person). Source said that due to this, Dubey could join back only in August after being informed by Army HQ about the letter. Sealing the office of Dubey and posting him out is an act of revenge against him for being a whistleblower in a number of previous cases against Gupta.

It is significant to note that in 2015, dozens of complaints were reported against Gupta for his deliberate acts and omissions of misconducts under CCS (Conduct) Rules 1964 and under the Army Act, criminal misconduct amounting to corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and criminal offences under IPC to then defence minister Manohar Parrikar. Gupta, then the Director of Vigilance and Security, DRDO HQ, New Delhi, was removed from his post and transferred to the office of Director General, Aeronmautical Systems, Bengaluru.

When questioned, Gupta said, “He (Dubey) is being relieved because there is an investigation against him for leakage of information which he was holding and gave to an unauthorised person outside the lab. Somebody has asked us to conduct an inquiry. He may influence the investigation and hence, he is being posted out.”

Responding to questions that Gupta sat on the Army HQ’s order overruling his decision to transfer Dubey, Gupta said, “DRDO is not under Army, DRDO is an independent organisation, which runs on the basis of its own rules and regulations. If the Army has posted him here, then there is a particular procedure which has to be followed as per DRDO rules. Even DRDO has written to the Army to post him back, I don’t know why the Army is not posting him back.”

When questioned about the VRDE security breach and complaint to CBI, Gupta replied, “I don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t want to talk further.”

 

 

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DRDO needs a major overhaul: House Panel

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DRDO needs a major overhaul: House Panel

A parliamentary panel, which examined the issue of preparedness of the country’s armed forces, defence production and requirement, has taken a dim view of the functioning of Defence Research and Development Organisation and felt it needs a “major overhaul”.

DRDO is the premier institution in defence research in the country, with more than 50 laboratories, 500 scientists and 25, 000 other scientific, technical and supporting personnel and has a budget of Rs 13,600 crore, which is about 5.5% of the total defence budget.

Noting that DRDO and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) are expected to be storehouses of strategic know-how in the development of missiles, armaments, light combat aircrafts, radars, electronic warfare systems and other defence hardware, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Estimates wondered as to why the country has to depend on foreign suppliers not just for sophisticated weapons but also for basic defence armaments.

“DRDO has not been able to meet nation’s expectations… the committee is of the view that the functioning of DRDO needs a major overhaul and its contribution in the context of country’s requirements need to be examined,” the panel said in a report which was adopted in its meeting on Tuesday.

The report is yet to be presented before Parliament.

The panel also referred to a CAG report of 2015 which had said that an examination of 14 mission mode projects carried out by DRDO laboratories revealed that all projects “failed to achieve their timelines” and the probable date of completion was extended many times.

The committee also flagged another report of a high-power committee constituted by the Ministry of Defence, which had reviewed the functioning of DRDO and had said that at least 11 laboratories of the organisation need to be closed down or amalgamated and its “non-core” research activities need to be stopped.

Referring to the high-power committee’s recommendation that DRDO needs to work with clearly defined objectives to develop weapon systems and platforms, the panel said that it feels that the end users – the three services – must be consulted on areas of research and development of weapon systems.

The panel also recommended the formation of an inter-ministerial group to facilitate collaboration among organisations such as SRO, DRDO and DPSUs.

It also called for “clear-cut road map” for meeting targets of Defence Production Policy, 2018, which aims at making India one of the top defence producers by 2025 with self-reliance in 13 areas covering almost the entire range of weapons and systems.

Drdo

Analytic report on present scenario of  appointments of incompetents in DRDO   by scientists

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To                                                                                              24th May 2018
Hon’ble Smt Nirmala Sitharaman,
Defence Minister,
104- South Block
New Delhi-110011

Subject:  Analytic report on present scenario of  appointments of incompetents in DRDO   by scientists

Madam,

Yesterday website received a letter from scientists of DRDO briefing that how incompetents getting top appointments.

Since you’re joining no any major decisions are visible to improve the current scenario of DRDO. All complaints / inquiries are pending no actions against corrupts, all DRDO is enjoying without any deliveries and best part of this they are getting awards (cash) for their failures from your hands only.

Can any citizen imagine that one scientist who was cornered by then defence minister after special CGDA reports, when he founds that in his own NGO he was supplying worth corers, Madras High Court gave 21 days sentence and Rs 2000 fine,  and for this acts he got Life Time Achievement award (Rs 10 Lakhs) from your hand.

Madam please find enclose letter and do needful to improve and save our premier research organization

With great hope, Jaihind

 

Regards

Prabhu Dandriyal,

21-Sunderwala, Raipur,

Dehradun-248008

Phone – 0135-2787750 | Mobile – 9411114879

Email – prabhudoon@gmail.com | website – www.corruptionindrdo.com

 

Enclosed

Copy of letter received by website