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CAG blows holes in DRDO’s early warning planes

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The auditor has said that operational requirements specified by the IAF were not met and added that there has been a 70% time overrun. (Representative image)

By Shaurya Karanbir Gurung, ET Bureau, Aug 08, 2018
After a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into corruption allegations, the Comptroller and Auditor General has also cast a shadow on an indigenous program for Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) system ordered by the Air Force.

In a detailed report, the CAG has stated that the project is yet to be fully realised even though it was conceived in 2002, leaving gaps in the IAF’s air-surveillance capability.

The auditor has said that operational requirements specified by the IAF were not met and added that there has been a 70% time overrun.

The central auditor also said selecting the Embraer aircraft as the platform created design constraints and caused the delays. It may be recalled that the CBI is probing allegations that kickbacks were paid in the Embraer aircraft deal that DRDO had struck with the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer in 2008.

The AEW&C is an airborne surveillance system which detects incoming hostile fighters, cruise missiles and drones much before ground based radars.

It also detects enemy troops build-ups, warships and directs friendly fighter jets during combat. The project for the indigenous development of the AEW&C of the IAF was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security in October 2004 at a cost of `1,800 cr. The CAG, however, said that the project’s total cost up till August 2017 was `2,425 Crore.
Under the project, two AEW&C were to be supplied to the IAF. Banglore based Centre of Air Borne Systems (CABS) of the DRDO was the nodal agency for developing the system.

The CAG says that the IAF had accepted the first AEW&C in February 2017. “However, out of the 18 operational requirements specified by the IAF, eight parameters could not be fully achieved by the AEW&C,” said the CAG report.

Some of these operational requirements are the primary surveillance radar for scanning the airspace to detect targets, the secondary radar to identify friends and foes, and the self protection suite to warn about incoming weapons. The IAF insisted that the eight parameters should be met in the second aircraft. The DRDO agreed to meet five of them, while arguing that the remaining three would not impact operations.

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Start with how to make a Rifle

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We pay a price when we let other countries set our pace. One day Donald Trump includes India in the list of those “who are robbing America” and threatens to levy high taxes on “thousands and thousands

US and Indian flags (File photo | Reuters)

Published: 05th August 2018 04:00 AM
By T J S George
We pay a price when we let other countries set our pace. One day Donald Trump includes India in the list of those “who are robbing America” and threatens to levy high taxes on “thousands and thousands” of Indian motorcycles imported into America. This was when India cut duty on the glamorous Harley-Davidson from 75 per cent to 50 instead of the 0 per cent Trump wanted. Another day Trump praises India and green-lights the sale of unmanned aerial combat vehicles to India, a deal that was previously denied. These missile-firing drones have a sea variant reputed to be effective in coastal defence. No doubt, they can be decisive in beating back attacks such as the 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai.

Is India expected to cringe when Trump threatens it, and feel elated when Trump flatters it? Our concern should be not that this is a man the world mistrusts because of his unpredictable mood shifts; our concern should be the assumptions that are taken for granted, seemingly by all, in US-India dealings.

The American turnaround on the sale of hi-tech weapons such as the drone is a case in point. This looked like a systemic shift rather than a Trumpian twinkle. Nevertheless, India needs to be cautious for at least three reasons. First, America now recognises India as a full partner in its defence strategies and considers this as an “upgradation” of India. Second, Delhi sought a favourable nod from Washington before moving to buy an anti-missile defence system from Russia. Both these factors are linked to the third: Washington’s eagerness to block China’s growth as a world power.

Barack Obama’s America had formally accepted India as a “major defence partner”. But the partnership gained muscle only when Trump moved India into America’s tier-I list of countries to which sensitive weapon systems could be exported without special licences. Trump has repeatedly stressed India’s importance in what he calls the Indo-Pacific region. This recognition led to Washington waiving its sanctions provisions and thereby enabling India to buy Russia’s 39,000-crore air defence missile system.
What does all this really mean from India’s standpoint?

It is easier to see what it means to America: It opens a big market for American weapons and gets a major regional power to be involved with American defence policies in the region. There could well be a section of Indians who see it as a sign of progress when (a) America upgrades Delhi to tier-I for military sales and (b) permits Delhi to buy Russian weapons. Other sections may see it as demeaning when (a) India is expected to feel good about upgradation for purposes of buying American weapons and (b) sanction-scared Delhi seeks American permission to buy Russian weapons.

Both schools will have to see as unacceptable the extent to which India is dependent on other countries for its essential defence needs. The proud exhibit on our weapons front is the Brahmos missile. But 65 per cent of it consists of imported components. INS Vikramaditya, the pride of the Indian navy, was formerly a Russian vessel mothballed because of age. , our first “indigenously built” nuclear submarine, took in extensive help from Russia. HAL, a competent public sector company, has received discouragement from successive governments.

Its Tejas aircraft has been waiting for decades to get operational clearance. Its plans over Rafale jet fighters fell flat when the project was taken out of its hands and given to Anil Ambani’s company. Last year an Indian-made rifle was rejected by the Indian Army. Even bulletproof jackets made in India are unpopular with our defence personnel. Despite a long history of defence research, proud achievements in rocket science and slogans like Make In India, India remains the world’s largest arms importer.

When America recognises as a “major defence partner” a country that cannot produce even a rifle, it is clear that it sees India as a profitable market for its pricey weapons. In the process India loses opportunities to develop foreign policy, especially China policy, for India’s benefit as distinct from the benefits of “Indo-Pacific”. China is currently producing weaponry so sophisticated that the US has started to worry. India need not have been left so far behind. The achievements of its space programme and of its scientists in Silicon Valley point to the talent available to India. But the defence ministry is manned by IAS generalists while the country is at the mercy of parties and politicians who put their interests above the nation’s. How can one get more than what one deserves?

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HAL’s Light Combat Aircraft project to come under IAF control

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Dinakar Peri   NEW DELHI, AUGUST 04, 2018 THE HINDU

 

Slow takeoff: The development of the Tejas-Mk 1A with specific enhancements has been delayed.

To prevent time and cost overruns, the IAF will soon have effective control over India’s indigenous LCA programme
The government is poised to hand over control of the Bengaluru division of State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to the Indian Air Force (IAF). This is to prevent more time and cost overruns on the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project. This comes at a particularly crucial time as the next phase of the LCA project, development of the MK2 variant, as well as the country’s next fighter aircraft programme, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), begin to take shape.

“The government has given the go ahead to hand over the entire Bengaluru complex of HAL to the IAF. With this, the fixed wing aircraft division will come under the IAF. The modalities are being worked out,” an official source told this reporter of the process that may take a few months.

HAL resists
HAL manufactures and assembles a range of aircraft and helicopters. However, it has faced criticism for its time and cost overruns and lack of professionalism in project execution. HAL has opposed this move for a long time, fearing erosion of its autonomy.

The LCA programme was sanctioned in 1983 and the aircraft made its first flight in 2001. The IAF had signed two contracts with HAL, one for 20 aircraft in the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) configuration signed on March 31, 2006, to be completed by December 2011, and another for 20 aircraft in the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) standard signed on December 23, 2010, which was to be completed by 2016. It is in the process of ordering 83 jets in the Mk 1A configuration.

The IAF constituted the first LCA squadron with just two aircraft in 2016 and, as of July 2018, has inducted only nine aircraft. Tejas has once again missed the FOC in June and the development of the Tejas-Mk 1A with specific enhancements has been delayed. With this development, HAL’s aircraft division will be headed by a serving three-star officer or an Air Marshal of the IAF, and effectively give the IAF control over the country’s indigenous LCA project.

In addition, three institutions — Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) — which are under the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) are likely to be brought under the direct control of the Chief of the Air Staff. Thus, the entire development cycle of the LCA will have the IAF’s oversight and will ensure timely execution and prevent blame games over delays, the source observed. Details of the specific contours of the move are awaited.

‘Long overdue’
“The IAF should have taken over the LCA programme two decades back, but [it is] good it’s happening at least now,” said Air Marshal M. Matheswaran (Retd), who oversaw the IAF’s fighter procurement in the past. He felt that to make a real difference, the IAF should get the entire cycle under its control, from design, standardisation, production and supply chain. Otherwise, just having one officer at the helm will not change things much, he added.

“Production for 20 FOC aircraft will be taken up after FOC clearance by the ADA, for which the current target is December 2018,” Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha last week.

However, a Defence Ministry official said this is likely to be delayed by another six months as several parameters like gun firing, air-to-air refuelling and new data-linked software defined radios, among others, are yet to be validated. The IAF wants new data links as a standard feature on the FOC variant as communications are an essential feature for an aircraft to operate in a network-centric environment.

HAL is setting up a second assembly line to ramp up production from eight to 16 aircraft a year, in addition to outsourcing major modules to private partners.

Design reboot
The LCA is powered by an American GE-404 engine, which the IAF has stated is underpowered. This is to be corrected in the LCA-Mk2 which would be a larger aircraft powered by the GE-414 engine producing 98kN thrust compared to 84kN thrust of the current engine.

“The design change has been launched sometime back. We don’t want just some superficial changes, but a real increase in performance. The target is to meet or exceed the Mirage aircraft in performance,” an IAF official said.

To accommodate the larger and more powerful engine, which also needs more fuel, requires a larger wingspan for the aircraft. This calls for a major design and engineering effort.

“There are concerns and challenges but it is doable,” the officer noted.

The first prototype of the Mk2 is expected to make its debut flight in 2022-23, and complete the IOC and FOC approvals in the next five years. The current target is to have the first squadron ready by 2028.

The IAF intends to have several squadrons of the LCA-Mk2 as it has to replace three Mirage squadrons, three Mig-29 squadrons and six Jaguar squadrons. A squadron typically has about 18 aircraft, 16 fighters and two trainers. However, this can vary, depending on the type of aircraft and the necessity.

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Exclusive: Defence research at risk due to delay in filling key posts

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By Pradip R Sagar August 04, 2018 THE WEEK

(File) Visitors look at a display of DRDO communication aircraft at the DefExpo 2018 in Chennai | AFP

The Narendra Modi government has undone one of its own major defence sector reforms. Soon after it had come to power, the Modi government had bifurcated the posts of the chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and of scientific adviser to the defence minster for better efficiency and ease of functioning. Now, both posts are vacant.

The last scientist to head the DRDO, S. Christopher, retired on May 29, and the government has not yet found a scientist to succeed him. So it has asked the defence secretary, an IAS officer, to also function as head of the prestigious body of defence scientists.

And two months ago, the term of Satish Reddy, scientific adviser to the defence minister, ended. The post has been lying vacant since.

Earlier, the director of the DRDO also used to function as scientific adviser to the defence minister. As many as 12 eminent scientists had held the post, including such illustrious names as A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, V.S. Arunachalam, V.K. Saraswat and Avinash Chander. Under their stewardship, the prestigious body with nearly 8,000 defence scientists—and having an annual budget of about Rs 20,000 crore and about 50 laboratories—developed a host of ballistic missiles, Light Combat Aircraft, Arjun battle tank and hundreds of critical weapons systems and components, which are not even available for import.

After the Modi government came to power, it first granted an extension to the then DRDO chief-cum-scientific adviser Chander, who was to retire in November 2014. The extension was for 18 months, but less than two months later, the Modi government abruptly cancelled the extension, sent Chander packing, and asked the defence secretary R.K. Mathur, an IAS officer, to function also as DRDO chief.

The then defence minister, Manohar Parrikar, defended the Modi government’s decision to cut short Chander’s tenure, saying that the government wanted someone younger to head the DRDO, as at that time, nearly a dozen of its topmost scientists were on service extensions after retirement.

Subsequently, the Modi government bifurcated the posts. The DRDO chief’s job was given to aeronautics scientist Dr S. Christopher, while Dr Satish Reddy, a missile scientist, was appointed scientific adviser in May 2015, both for two-year terms. When their terms expired, the government gave both of them one-year extensions.

Finally, Christopher’s tenure expired on May 29, on which day he demitted office. The post has since been held as an additional charge by Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra, an IAS officer, for the period of three months.

Reddy’s extended tenure ended on June 4, and he has since gone back. The post he held in Delhi, that of the scientific adviser, “has since been lying vacant, and no fresh order for extension of his service or naming his successor has come,” said an informed source.

There is a buzz in the defence ministry that Reddy, who is also director general (Missiles & Strategic Systems) is being considered for the post of DRDO chief. Other names being considered include P.K. Mehta, director general of armament and combat engineering systems; Jillelamudi Manjula, currently posted as the director general, electronics and communication systems and Sudhir Mishra, head of BrahMos.

There is also speculation that the Modi government is toying with another experiment—of merging the posts of secretary, Research and Development (who is also chairman, DRDO) and secretary, defence production. The ‘IAS lobby’, too, is learnt to be pushing for the move because the defence production secretary’s job is held by an IAS officer.

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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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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

One killed, one injured in fire explosion at HEMRL

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Prateek Goyal  – Wednesday, 20 June 2018 – Sakal Times

Pune: One person died and another was injured in a major fire accident at High Energy Materials Research Laboratory of DRDO on Tuesday. Sources confirmed that the accident occurred in building No. 16 of HEMRL at around 3 pm.

The deceased worker was identified as Laxmikant Sonawane, 30, a native of Nandurbar, whereas, the injured worker has been identified as Yogesh Kirtikar, 28, a resident of Pashan. Both were working as contract labourers at HEMRL and were deployed by one Thane-based company known as Shree Gajanan Facilities Pvt Ltd.

According to sources, the accident occurred while they were cutting the gas generator’s composite propellant. “The two men were working with a hacksaw and were cutting the propellant in the explosive area. The fire explosion had occurred because of the friction while they were cutting the propellant. Sonwane, who was using the hacksaw, died on the spot, whereas, Kirtikar has received burn injuries on his hands, eyes and head,” said a source at HEMRL.

It is significant to note that both the workers were not experts in explosives and neither they were carpenters. They have not received any formal training to do the propellant cutting.

A HEMRL official on the condition of anonymity, said, “DRDO doesn’t even give compensation to the workers who die in such accidents while giving their services in these scientific projects. In the year 2015 accident, all HEMRL employees donated their salary to the family of deceased contract worker Deepak Pokale and two other injured workers.

KPS Murthy, Director, HEMRL, said, “It was very unfortunate that a contractual labour died in the accident. The actual cause of the accident will be revealed only after a detailed investigation.”
Arun Vaykar, Police Inspector, Hinjewadi police station, said, “A police team rushed to the spot immediately after the incident. We have initiated an investigation into the matter and will find out the reasons for the accident.”

Drdo

One killed in fire at Pune DRDO lab

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HEMRL is one of the oldest laboratories of the DRDO.

By: Express News Service | Pune | Published: June 20, 2018

Police have identified the deceased worker as Laxmikant Ramesh Sonawane (26), a resident of Ramnagar in Warje, and the injured as Yogesh Kirtikar. (Representational)

One contract worker died and another was seriously injured in a fire involving explosive material at the High Energy Material Research Laboratory (HEMRL) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), at Pashan in Pune on Tuesday afternoon.

Police have identified the deceased worker as Laxmikant Ramesh Sonawane (26), a resident of Ramnagar in Warje, and the injured as Yogesh Kirtikar.

“The deceased was a contract worker. All the safety measures were in place at the time of the accident. A high-level DRDO committee will investigate the causes of the accident and come up with a report,” said HEMRL Director KPS Murthy.

Senior Inspector Arun Waykar of Hinjewadi police station said, “The workers were taking samples of some explosives when suddenly, some of the substances they were handling exploded.”

HEMRL is one of the oldest laboratories of the DRDO.

Drdo

Railways Mull Rs 6,250 Cr Replacement To Flawed Bio-Toilets–After Spending Rs 1,620 Cr

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IndiaSpend Team, June 18, 2018
Mumbai: Having spent nearly Rs 1,370 crore on 136,985 railway bio-toilets–criticised for being “no better than septic tanks”–and after earmarking Rs 250 crore to install bio-toilets on remaining trains by March 2019, the railway ministry is now considering “upgraded” vacuum bio-toilets at a cost of Rs 6,250 crore.

“We have started experimenting with vacuum bio-toilets like those in an aeroplane,” Railway Minister Piyush Goyal told PTI. “Some 500 vacuum bio-toilets have been ordered and once the experiment is successful, I am willing to spend money to replace all the 2.5 lakh toilets in the trains with vacuum bio-toilets.”

Vacuum toilets, which cost around Rs 2.5 lakh per unit, will be odour-free, will cut down water use by 1/20th and have fewer chances of getting blocked, he added.

This takes the cost to Rs 6,250 crore.

In addition, vacuum toilets will need to be emptied and cleaned in rail yards.

As of May 31, 136,965 bio-toilets have been fitted in 37,411 coaches, at a cost of around Rs 1 lakh per toilet, according to railway ministry officials quoted by the PTI. This brings the expenditure to about Rs 1,370 crore.

There is a plan to install bio-toilets in around 18,750 more coaches by March 2019, when all the coaches of the Indian Railways will be fitted with such toilets, costing the national transporter around Rs 250 crore, the PTI release added.

The technology–and the criticism

Indian Railways are often described as the world’s biggest toilet: They eject around 3,980 tonnes of faecal matter–the equivalent of 497 truck-loads (at 8 tonnes per truck)–onto rail tracks every day, according to a report released by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in 2013.

Bio-toilets are small-scale sewage-treatment systems beneath the toilet seat: Bacteria in a compost chamber digest human excreta, leaving behind water and methane. Only the water, disinfected later, is let out on the tracks. That’s how they were supposed to work.

But, signs of failure came early.

In 2007, an experts committee headed by Vinod Tare, a professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, had concluded that bio-toilets developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) were not workable. “Yet, the Indian Railways went ahead with the decision to proliferate this model,” Tare told IndiaSpend in this January 7, 2018, interview.

Sanitation experts and various studies–including commissioned by the railways–have pointed out that most of the new “bio-toilets” on Indian trains are ineffective or ill maintained and the water discharged no better than raw sewage, as IndiaSpend reported on November 23, 2017.

Lokendra Singh, former director of the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), had, after an expedition to Antarctica, brought home psychrophilic bacteria that can survive in extremely low temperatures. The bacteria were mixed with cow dung and normal soil, which have methogens (microorganisms that produce methane) capable of breaking down human excreta. This was then supplied to the manufacturers of rail bio-digesters.

Singh’s claims of a scientific breakthrough were questioned: The bacterium did not have independent third-party certification, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) did not have a patent for the design and manufacture of bio-toilets, and once the tank is filled, human excreta is allowed to drop down onto the tracks.

A December 2017 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on these bio-toilets echoed the findings of our November 2017 investigation into their widespread malfunctioning: The CAG found 199,689 defects in 25,000 toilets. Some major issues were:

Highest number of problems/ defects (41,111) found at the Bengaluru coaching depot, followed by Gorakhpur (24,495) and Wadi Bunder (22,521);
Complaints per bio-toilet were highest at the Bengaluru coaching deport (98), followed by Wadi Bunder (32), Rameshwaram (28) and Gwalior (17);
Of the 102,792 instances of choking, 10,098 (10%) cases reported in March 2017;
Of the 102,792 cases of choking in 25,080 bio-toilets, the highest (34%) were reported from Bengaluru. This implied that one bio-toilet got choked 83 times a year;
Choking incidents have risen from 2015-16: One bio-toilet got choked four times a year during 2016-17.

Responding to the CAG findings, the railway ministry said its criticism was “not correct” and that “some problems of choking were occurring on account of misuse of toilets by passengers”. An official note from December 20, 2017, said: “These issues are being dealt with promptly.”

The denial

The railways ministry responded to our November 2017 investigation, pointing out what it calls “factual inaccuracies” and a lack of “technological understanding”. We had published the rejoinder verbatim, with our response:

The ministry said the IIT Madras study was conducted “on stationary toilets on selected 15 field installed units and 6 units installed at IIT Madras Campus with bio-digesters based on DRDO technology”, and not on railway coaches. “There is absolutely no difference,” professor Ligy Philip of IIT Madras had told us. “The same technology and the same bacteria is being used for both the land-based and the train bio-digesters.”
“It is not correct to say that bio-toilets in coaches are ineffective or ill-maintained,” the ministry said, adding that periodic tests are conducted to ensure that the discharged water meets specific norms. However, agenda papers of a Railway Board meeting in October 2017 showed that bio-toilets have not passed the performance tests.
“DRDE has more than a dozen national and foreign patents not only on the basic technology but also on the bio-digester fitted in railway coaches,” the ministry said. However, the patent is for engineering and septic tank design. There is no mention on the use of the Antarctica bacteria to aid the bio-digestion process.
The ministry said that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with the DRDO in March 2010. However, the patent for engineering and septic tank design was awarded in 2015–five years after the MoU for supply of bio-toilets was signed.

The policy U-turn

As a possible solution, IndiaSpend had offered the ‘zero-discharge toilets’ developed by IIT Kanpur.

“IIT Kanpur developed ‘zero-discharge toilets’ which have a separator to segregate the solid matter of human excreta from the liquid portion,” Tare, the professor, told us. “The liquid portion, after treatment, can be used for flushing, while the solid waste can be evacuated at junctions with the aid of assembly suction pumps. Human excreta–mixed with cow dung–could subsequently be used for vermi-composting.”

The railway ministry rejected this solution saying the system “involves installation of ground handling facility to evacuate retention tanks at the terminals”.

“This involves huge infrastructure cost, man-power, terminals are landlocked, inter- track distance is not uniform everywhere,” the ministry said. “Whereas, in IR-DRDO system, waste is treated on-board itself and thus no ground infrastructure is required. Thus, IR-DRDO bio-toilets being proliferated over IR, is a better solution.”

Vacuum toilets, such as those used in aeroplanes, as we said, will need evacuation facilities and treatment plants–which will come at an additional cost to the Rs 6,250 crore likely to be spent on replacing the bio-toilets.

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‘Can’t fight tomorrow’s war with yesterday’s weapons, incorporate AI’: DG Artillery

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Several scientists from the Armament Cluster of the DRDO, representatives of the industry and students are attending the conference in Armament Technology in Pashan, Pune.

Written by Sushant Kulkarni | Pune | June 9, 2018 – The Indian Express

ARDE Director K M Rajan and Lt Gen P K Srivastava.

“Tomorrow’s wars can’t be fought with yesterday’s technology,” said Lieutenant General P K Srivastava, Director General of the Artillery of the Indian Army, and urged the Armament scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to delve more into Artificial Intelligence for future warfare.

Lt Gen Srivastava, who is also the Colonel Commandant of Regiment of Artillery of the Indian Army, was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the two-day National Conference on Advances in Armament Technology (NCAAT 2018), which has been organised at Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), a DRDO laboratory located at Pashan in Pune.

Several scientists from the Armament Cluster of the DRDO, representatives of the industry and students are attending the conference.

“There is a need for us come out of the concepts on which we are fixated… the world is changing. We live in one of the worst neighbourhoods. If we have to become a power of reckoning, we will have to possess a weapons systems of the future. We can’t be fighting tomorrow’s war with weapons from yesterday. Right now, we are building weapons of yesterday, with more and more efficiency. To build weapons of tomorrow, we need scientists, who know warfare, and we need soldiers who understand technology.”

He added, “Whatever weapon systems we are developing, we should embed artificial intelligence. If that happens, we could look at missiles that are completely automated. We need weapon systems which are intelligent and less and less manpower intensive. I also expect the Armament Cluster of the DRDO to not just develop weapon systems but also come up with ideas for the next generation of warfare. India’s strengths have been software, computers, artificial intelligence and robotics, and we need to further incorporate these into our weapons systems. Our engineers and scientists are working all over the world. We need to utilise our human resources to change the paradigm of the warfare in the subcontinent.”

Responding to Gen Srivastava’s speech, senior DRDO scientist P K Mehta, who heads the Armament Cluster of the DRDO, said after the inaugural ceremony, “There are already some ongoing projects in Artificial Intelligence and unmanned systems. Some laboratories have started incorporating them in the existing products. But it needs to be pointed out that the user, which is the armed forces, does not have a line directorate for the induction of the Artificial Intelligence and unmanned systems. We should have a long term roadmap in the area, which is not there right now. The country, as a whole, needs to have a roadmap for that. The DRDO can certainly help in forming that.”

K M Rajan, director of ARDE, said, “The process of incorporating AI systems into Armament has started at the basic level. We hope to do it more in the future.”