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RTI to Air Force Collapse of Slopes IACCS Project Site

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To                                                                                            18 June 2019

Wg Cdr Suman Adhikari

CPIO,

Room No. 160, Dte of PS,

Air HQ (VB), Rafi Marg,

New Delhi 110106

Hello,
Kindly provide me with the following information requested under the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005 in respect  of IACCS project executing by BEL. Costing huge Rs 7900 Cr public money involved in defence strategic preparedness program.

  1. Whether BEL informed to IACCS Directorate that BEL Corporate Vigilance had received an email complaint: dated 31st August 2017 Vigilance from Shri  Manish Aggarwal, Advocate. Supreme Court of India regarding scam in NCS unit of BEL. Ghaziabad in the 10 construction sites projects allotted for defence. Yes or No
  2. If yes, then provide the date of receiving such communication from BEL on above said matter..
  3. Whether BEL informed to IACCS Directorate that BEL received   complaint mails and letter from IACCS site regarding compromising in quality procedures like one such mail sent by an engineer on dated  2018-03-28 13:21 to Mr Solomon Paul Raj, Mgs (CO-VIG) Yes or No
  4. As per enclose email – Also MECON reply to BEL (9 pages) after collapse of slopes may be referred for a wider view of the project. Provide that Whether IACCS Directorate, Air force received any communication from BEL in respect of  above mention collapse of slopes in construction sites yes or no
  5. If yes than provide that any inquiry committee constituted by Air force on misshape of IACCS project. Yes or No

Regards

Prabhu  Dandriyal,
21-Sunderwala, Raipur, Dehradun -248008 M- 9411114879, e-mail id prabhudoon@gmail.com  website www.corruptionindrdo.com

  Enclosed the copy of email complaint

 Registration Number    MODEF/R/2019/51879

Suject6: Re. Relation to your complaint

From: <…………………………….>

To           <solomonpaulraj@bel.co.in>

Cc           rajasekaranan> rajasekaranan@bel.co.in>

Date      2018-03-28 13:21

Dear Sir,

  1. It may please be noted  the following information being shared with you is highly confidential and unofficial.  For my official version you can officially request my higher management (for permission) for my statement as ex-site in-charge   of PMC only and not as complainant. I am sharing these  information because I find higher official of BEL impose lot of unethical verbal instruction on juniors unethically which  is damaging for a PSU.
  2. I was posted as site In-charge of MECON (PMC) and tried my best to act as whistleblower being a part of a project of national importance. I had issued innumerable mails and letter regarding quality issues of the project. But the engineer In-charge (AGM) and other higher officials (GM) from BEL desisted me verbally at Ghaziabad and at site not to follow quality procedures strictly on the pretext of progress of the project. They actually always blindly favoured the contractor anywhere and everywhere.  
  3. However, when we did not allow any relaxation in this regard and made deduction in bills wherever quality procedures were not followed, higher officials of BEL at Ghaziabad were not satisfied with XXXXX site in-charge (both of BEL& MECON] for not favouring the contractor and for following  rule-book strictly. For that reason BEL GM&AGM transferred their own site incharge (Shri Ravi Kumar) and pressurized MECON to transfer Shri MK Haldar (Sr Mgr) of MECON in Sep 17 on the pretext that they did not perform satisfactorily, whereas actually it was just opposite. This was to instill a sense of fear so that other engineers fall in line.
  4. BEL Vigilance took up the issue due to some complaint from other sources and Shri MM Roy {name not sure) of BEL Vigilance and team were to visit Salua site. BEL Ghaziabad became very Jittery on the news because I was the only engineer from BEUMECON at site who was there since inception of the project and was a whistleblower. They in connivance with the influential contractor again pressurized MECON management to remove me from site immediately and my transfer order was issued within 2 hrs on 15.03.18 with the release date of 19.03.13 so that I can be out of station before 23.03.18 after availing maximum 2 days joining leave.
  5. Also it was intriguing and surprising, that the BEL vigilance team (all P5U employees with Police verification done) were not allowed at xxxx site by the Air force and this is first of such instance of refusal entry. Based on BEL site In-charge letter  (all record available) even officials of unknown/roadside private firms were always allowed on producing of any govt. issued identify card (all record available with BEL site In-charge)
  6. For all the aforesaid letters and emails (documentary evidences) you can approach file kept at MECON site office. Also MECON reply to BEL [9 pages] after collapse of slopes may be referred for a wider view of the project.
  7.  There is no direct evidence of corruption.

With Best Regards.

XXXXX

Ex DGM Bi Site in-charge, MECON Ltd, Salua

 2018-03-2? 17:10 GMT+0S:30 < solomonpaulraj@bel.co.in

Dear Sir,

Drdo

Toilets on trains: Some issues that need attention

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October 18, 2014, Economic Times Blog
Ever since the Railway Committee started its work, whenever people run into me, even if it is at a social occasion, they buttonhole me and offer suggestions about what should be done to improve the Railways. This is understandable and desirable, since it is a manifestation of interest in the Railways. Often, though not always, these are complaints about passenger amenities, or their lack, and suggestions about improving these. Passenger amenities are only one aspect of improving the Railways, though this is visible, and is representative of most citizen interface with the Railways. Toilets figure towards the top of any average complaint list, toilets in stations and toilets on trains. For the moment, let me confine myself to toilets on trains. As everyone knows, Indian trains began to function from 1853. But toilets on trains had to wait till 1909. There is an oft-quoted, and therefore somewhat clichéd letter, written by Okhil Chandra Sen to the Deputy Superintendent of Sahibganj in 1909, familiar to all those who know about Indian railway history. The original letter is in the National Railway Museum, Delhi. This led to the introduction of toilets on trains.
Here is that self-explanatory letter. “Dear Sir, I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with LOTAH in one hand & DHOTI in the next when I am fall over & expose all my shocking to men & female women on platform. I am got leaved Ahmedpur station. This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train minutes for him. I am therefor pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers.” Sahibganj (in Jharkhand) has seen better days, from the Railway point of view. It is no longer on the Howrah-Delhi main line. Ahmedpur is in West Bengal and Mr Sen must have travelled along the Bardhman-Sainthia section of what is called the Sahibganj loop.
IR (Indian Railways) has around 50,000 passenger coaches, a little less than 50,000 if you exclude EMUs (electric multiple units), a little more than 50,000 if you include EMUs. So these have to be fitted with toilets, say 4 per coach. This blog is only about toilets, not about cleaning and maintaining them. If it’s a short-distance train, you might legitimately argue you don’t need 4 toilets per coach. 2 might do and you might make them even more basic than those required for long-distance. Traditionally, IR toilets have provided for water and the waste has been discharged onto tracks. That’s a terrible idea from the sanitation point of view, especially when on a train is at a station. Tracks are corroded and so are fittings on the under-carriages. Why can’t we have toilets on trains that are like those in the West? What about the West? In some places in the West, you have what are called controlled discharge toilets (CDTs). These store waste in tanks and discharge them when the train attains a minimum speed. Three problems with these. First, you are still discharging on tracks, which is what you want to avoid. Second, these require trains to attain a minimum speed. Sometimes, trains don’t pick up that minimum speed at all.
Alternatively, at the other end, when a station has a long platform, the discharge begins before the train has left the station. Third, CDTs don’t work well when people use water, as opposed to toilet paper. Hence, no CDTs, though they have been used on Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duranto. Almost 3000 coaches have actually been fitted with CDTs. Moving on, at best, on better trains (where people don’t use that much water), you can have tanks that don’t discharge, but have tanks that are cleaned. This is what happens with planes. However, with the large number of passengers who travel on trains, this won’t work except on short-distance trains, and those where people are unlikely to use water. Even if this were to be attempted, coaches need redesigning.
Therefore, IR has now veered around to bio-toilets, designed with DRDO collaboration. Bacteria decompose the waste. Some stuff is released as carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. Whatever is left is chlorinated and disinfected liquid that can be released onto the tracks. In tests, the effluent hasn’t had any toxic effects on rats and fish. Since 2011, almost 5,000 coaches have been fitted with these bio-toilets, on Express trains like GWL-BSB Bundelkhand, GHY-MAS Egmore, Indore-Gwalior, Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak, Jammu Tawi-Indore, NZM-Indore Malwa, NZM-Indore Intercity, Mumbai-BSB Mahanagri and Kochuveli-Bangalore. These are like trial runs, though you may not have noticed them. There is a decision that all new coaches will have bio-toilets, a decision that will effectively be implemented from 2016-17. Sounds good, but there are a couple of problems. First, for a new coach (with 4 toilets), bio-toilets cost Rs 3 lakhs per coach. But for an old coach, which has to be retroactively fitted, it costs Rs 15 lakhs per coach. Among other things, because these toilets add to weight, and ordinary coaches are heavily loaded, the weldings/mountings fail. The coaches have to cut open, so that these can be reinforced. Assuming you can spare the coaches, that’s quite a sum of money. But there is a decision that from 2021-22, all coaches will have bio-toilets.
The second problem is more serious. People stuff other things into toilets – polythene bags, sanitary napkins, diapers, bottles, pouches. These aren’t always bio-degradable. In those trial runs, one coach per train has come back with this kind of problem. Sure, there are waste-bins outside toilets. But passengers don’t always use them. For sanitary napkins/diapers, you can’t reasonably expect passengers to come out and use those bins. You need bins inside toilets, like aircraft. But bins inside toilets stink, unless they are regularly cleaned. Therefore, you realize the broad problem. There are multiple kinds of passenger segments. It’s one thing to lick a problem for a train that travels for no more than 24 hours (even easier for 8 hours). It is another thing to lick a problem for a train than travels for 72 hours.

Drdo

DRDO chief invokes Vedas to explain intel importance

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Written by Vijaita Singh | New Delhi | Posted: December 24, 2014 2:19 am

Indian Express

The country’s scientist and DRDO chief Avinash Chander on Tuesday invoked mythology to explain the importance of intelligence network, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited Karna’s birth in Mahabharata to suggest “genetic science” existed in India even in ancient times.

Chander, the man behind the Agni series missiles, while addressing the Intelligence Bureau sleuths said “information gathering and intelligence have been emphasised even in Vedas and Puranas”, and invoked “Rig Veda and Atharva Veda” to send across his point that intelligence gathering had to be abreast with technology.

NSA Ajit Doval, new IB chief Dineshwar Sharma and outgoing IB chief Syed Asif Ibrahim were present on the dais when the DRDO chief addressed the function.

Delivering the 27th Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture, Chander, who is also the scientific advisor to the Defence Minister, said, “Information gathering and intelligence have been emphasised even in Vedas and Puranas. We find the invocations in Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, where it talks how the spies of Agni came down from the sky with thousands of eyes. The son of Brahaspati, teacher of gods, Kaccha was sent as a spy to Sukracharya to know the Sanjeevani mantra as explained in Mathsyapurana.” His term expired on December 1, but he was retained for two more years by the NDA government to head the post.

Chander, a IIT graduate, said, “In Sabhaparvam of Mahabharata ‘Lokapala Sabhakhayana Parva’ explains the importance of information gathering, establishing the spy network and related instrumentation in connection with the armed forces.”

To make his point, Chander said, “Arthashastra by Kautilya defines it as an integral part of court craft. The first of two chapters on establishing an intelligence system explain five kinds of spies for gathering internal intelligence.”

Comments 

c.r.panicker • 2 hours ago

Bhagavat Gita advises three courses of action (1) Gyana Yoga (2) Karma Yoga and (3) Bhakti Yoga. Before doing something, acquire complete of the situation, then create a fool proof plan of action and act with all resources to tackle the situation. You will then succeed in your operation. In this sense what is wrong in quoting puranas and scriptures. There is nothing which need hurt the sentiments of non-Hindus

RCA • 4 hours ago

Please don’t refer to Vedas as mythology. That was the terminology of the British Raj, which referred to Christian holy book as scripture, but Hindu holy books as mythology (i.e a myth, or something that is not correct). Its time to fix this wrong terminology.

Sai bhargavs • 5 hours ago

its not mythology

SacchaDesi • 11 hours ago

Nowadays everyone has to quote from Vedas to keep their job. DRDO has been among worst performing indian organisation. May be this explains why.

sk • 14 hours ago

Bad mentality of media and psuedo secularists. The top Scientists world over quote Veda/Upanishads/Advaita all the time and they will be quoted much more in coming times as can be seen by new physicists openly adopting yoga/meditation path, like John Hagelin (Harvard/Stanford/CERN trained Quantum Physicist or his senior in that field like Schrodinger, Neils Bohr or even people like Peter Russell), the whole world invokes Veda/Upanishads more than Indians, Indians hardly discuss Upanishads/Advaita, Indians discuss bollywood, hollywood or other such stupid stuff more.

Intelligent people are becoming more and more truthful and so they do not care about saying whatever is truth, Vedas/Upanishads/Advaita/Patanjali/Yoga/Meditation are the firstto give basic truth about reality and consciousness, this recognition will only increase not decrease because it is truth. Also, these people gave these ideas in remarkably humble/detached ways with amazing simplicity so when an intelligent mind reads Upanishads/Advaita, there is little chance to not to be impressed by those ideas.

guest • 14 hours ago

The Vedas aren’t mythology, the Mahabharat and the Ramayana are.

Hegelman • 19 hours ago

This is a major violation of secularism and our constitution. The Hindutva Brigade is getting out of control. Hindu right wing outfits are quoting Hindu scriptures and mythology.

It is time for the Secular Brigade to swing into action. Secular leftwing organisations – not outfits – should answer back by citing Christian and Muslim historical facts.

Hegelman • 19 hours ago

How can this be allowed in India? No one in India must cite Hindu scriptures or mythology. This is a secular land, and such actions violate our constitution.

jois • 19 hours ago

very nice explanation from scientist. what is the problem? we are proud to be Indian

Davinder Prasad • 19 hours ago

Outgoing Chief Mr Saye Asif Ibrahim must have been amused at this silly comment from the incoming Mr Avinash Chander. May Lord God help Mr Chand to think straight, he has responsibility for the whole nation.

SK tyagi • 20 hours ago

Well our vedas are full of all info needed by us

Devil • 21 hours ago

What is wrong if an accomplished Scientist Mr Chander is illustrating a point by invoking puranas or vedas. In west, people cite greek mythology, bible etc extensively to make points. Its only some of de-racinated Indians who are shameful of our heritage & culture and always trying to ape west. If Mr. Chander would have illustrate the same point invoking bible or greek mythology or sun tzu, he wouldn’t have raised any hackles. Shame on such deracinated Indians.

Katewal  Devil • 10 hours ago

Well said.

Mahalakshmi Iyer  Devil • 12 hours ago

First of all you should know the difference between mythology and philosophy.

Philosophy and mythology have nothing in common. Mythology belongs to the religious domain, it is religion explained in stories. Myths are passed down one generation to the next, and they belong to a specific culture.

Philosophy, on the other hand, belongs more to the scientific domain. It is the work of one man, or a series of men, as they sit down to think about the origin of the universe, the purpose of life and so on. Most philosophy has nothing to do with religion, and it can explain the world without superhuman figures.

Devils will always flock together to justify their baseless arguments.

Davinder Prasad  Devil • 19 hours ago

This is an equally silly comment, I am sorry to say. Being Hindu does not mean that you have to agree with every nonsense, I am saying this as a Hindu.

harsh baniya • a day ago

Anything wrong about that Indian Express? Don’t be so pathetic please.

harsh baniya • a day ago

So whats wrong in it …. ???? And btw Mahabharata is not mythology …. Foreign funded paid historians has termed it so

Ramesh Sharma • a day ago

He should have cited the relevant Vedic and Puranic sutras. Otherwise how can we verify his remarks? DRDO has grossly under performed given the resources at its command.

SC  Ramesh Sharma • 2 hours ago

Have you ever gone through Vedic or puranic literature? Had you studied you would not have raised this query.

Mahalakshmi Iyer • a day ago

How long are we going to talk science on the basis of mythology? No wonder we are no where near China in Science & Technology even after 62 years of independence.

We must understand Scientific temper is different from mythological temper. Our defense and space programmes should be based on Scientific innovations and not on mythological farts.

kyafarakpadtakounhai  Mahalakshmi Iyer • 14 hours ago

China followed the vedas and purana’s way before we did, all the technology in china has been spied and taken from the US and Europe, right from esculators, trains to their spaceship. What did china do on its own?

When a drone crashed in Iran, the Chinese were there even before US knew about the whereabouts of the Drone.

Even if it is Mythology, it has been conceived through experience.

In few centuries the atomic bomb and Einstein will also become Mythology.

Life on earth happens in cycles, if we are able to make the nuclear bomb, Bramha Astra must have been invented during the mythological times,

We have planes they have Pushpak Viman.

We have televisions they had Divya Dhristi.

The mantras are forumlas and proceedures to manufacture something.

We never believe in what we have at home, it is always bullshit, always things

outside our home look beautiful. The day we believe what we have is the day

when India will Surpass all other countries.

Bharani Komandur  Mahalakshmi Iyer • 20 hours ago

Why do we keep calling Mahabharata and Ramayana as “Mythology” and not “History”. Why are Hindus so ashamed of their History? Also, DRDO can accomplish a lot, if there is political will. Our politicians want to keep “buying” technology, so that their Swiss Banks accounts can be filled. That is the problem. In China, the punishment for Corruption is Death Sentence, and they do Execute them. In India, we Celebrate corruption. That is the problem. I am sure, if he had cited Bible or Quran, we “The Secular Hindus” would have applauded.

anonymous • a day ago

Tell me why aristotles poetics is taught in MA (English) even today. the same should be true for indian scriptures. what is all this debale about.

Arjun Narayanan • a day ago

Communal remarks! How dare he even think of Hindu scriptures in a secular country. Shall we start a twitter trend to protest this? At least a one hour discussion on News Hour should happen right?

DG1 • a day ago

DRDO chief has gone nuts. If he really was a student of Vedas then the moribund organization that he heads would not be as pathetic as it is, given the funds and resourced poured into it to come up with something worthwhile and original.

Bharani Komandur  DG1 • 20 hours ago

Please do not blame the DRDO. Do you really think that India can get to Mars, but cannot make a combat aircraft? Seriously? Politicians do not want the DRDO to make combat aircrafts or any high tech weapons. They want them to be “Imported only”, so that in those shady deals, their Bank Accounts in Switzerland and Mauritius can get filled.

LalaLajpatRai • a day ago

It is 100% true that several ancient texts talk about intelligence gathering though I differ with Avinash on his understanding of Rg Vedic texts. Instead of just quoting and claiming that we had all these before, it would have been useful if Avinash had really figured out what exactly we could use out of them in modern day context. Otherwise it is an empty useless talk.

sks  LalaLajpatRai • 18 hours ago

what u can use from it is them importance of intel gathering. That’s what the poor fellow emphasized. Now what technology was used may or may not be relevant for today hence he didnt go in that direction.

Sachi Mohanty • a day ago

All the nincompoops are coming out of the woodwork. Or, may be, this shows how technical education does not ‘teach’ rational thinking.

Gwen Stacy • a day ago

Why do you have problem with scientist stating some fact? There are verifiable . All you need is to roll your finger on internet online translation of Vedas .

Indian First • a day ago

Nice going…great future for this guy.

sishtla • a day ago

What is your problems if certain facts are told in the interest of nation to assist in intelligence gathering.Do the writer wants some other religious text to show his secular credentials.If the trend continues the news paper will have to close its publication.

MKRao • a day ago

I am shocked to see but it almost seems like talking anything that is related to Hinduism in India has become an unpardonable sin these!!! Why are we are becoming so intolerable towards Hinduism?!!! Why nobody talks of religions which are only turning a normal humans into perverts, psychopaths and subhumans?!!!! When the source of all religions were meant to be for betterment of Humanity?!!!!

Prabakar • a day ago

Excellent

Mohanlal Com • a day ago

Absolutely true! All Bharatiyas should be proud of these invaluable sayings and the nation must implement the principles.

Venkat • a day ago

Great though the author seems to be somewhat skeptical. Please read about Mahaperiyavaa to understand everything that we see today our so called new discoveries and inventions already find mention in the Vedas there is nothing new to discover.

anil • a day ago

For idiots, what DRDO chief said is a mythology, but for intelligents, it is history.

Sundara Pandiyan • a day ago

Good to know that our scientists are well-versed in our history and heritage.

  1. Curry • a day ago

May the spies of Jesus, his servant Modi, come down from the sky with thousands of eyes for DRDO chief Avinash Chander. Amen.

Drdo

Incurring the DRDO’s rath

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It should disturb us all gravely that a motorised battery-powered chariot is the level of “technology” the DRDO feels proud to pass on.
25-11-2014
SHIV AROOR @shivaroor

I love this story. Everything about it numbs the brain. What I love best about it is that nobody could have made this up: An Indian military laboratory tucked away in a leafy Pune neighbourhood, tasked with building combat support vehicles, has built and supplied a gleaming battery-powered rath to the grateful Alandi Temple nearby. Correct. A chariot. For a temple. You see what I mean? Can’t make this stuff up.

Details sometimes kill a great story. In this case, they really crank up the W-T-F value.

The story emerged on the front pages of the New Indian Express which reported that the rath was built at a cost of Rs five crore and “donated” to the temple. The laboratory reportedly explained that the work was done as “seva” and that a scientist who apparently blew the whistle on what he felt was a totally improper use of public money and laboratory resources, was shunted and buried in a lower profile role in Nashik. The clincher now, the NIE report says, is that the Bombay High Court has stepped in and ordered the DRDO and MoD to explain what this rath business is all about. I know nothing beyond what’s been reported, so I decided to poke around. When I called a DRDO spokesperson asking him what the fuss was about, he fobbed me off. “It was done as seva. What is wrong if some military research helps some civilian cause also?” he asked. Well, plenty, I thought, but decided to sit on it. Let’s see just how farcical this can get. Other than a little hilarity and outrage on Twitter, the story hasn’t turned too many people on. That may change if the DRDO decides to officially comment.

First off, only an idiot would hope to find any justification at all for a public-funded combat vehicle research lab spending any resources (money, man-hours that could be better spent, materials, electricity) on a rath. Second, excuses like “seva” etc don’t hold. If the rath project eats into laboratory time or resources even slightly, it’s unacceptable. Period. Three, inappropriate diversions of this kind are an insult to the hundreds of DRDO scientists actually doing stellar, quality military research, even at the same laboratory. Indulgences of this kind hurt the reputations of scientists who have to work harder just to make up for the incompetence, laziness and vacuous sahib culture of their colleagues. Finally (and this is my favourite reason) it should disturb us all gravely that a motorised battery-powered chariot is the level of “technology” the DRDO is dabbling with and feels proud to pass on. As someone on Twitter pointed out to me, a small group of engineering kids could have built the thing in two months or less. (Less. Definitely less. Have you seen the stuff engineering students make these days?)

The Bombay High Court has better things to do than intervene in preposterous issues of this kind, but I for one would love to know how this one plays out, especially since the DRDO chief himself has been asked to explain. The DRDO chief is a good man, a strong missile scientist, who I hope will send out the right message. Because for far too long, the DRDO has gotten away never having to explain itself, always shielding itself with a pretend-patriotic forcefield, crying foul at the slightest criticism and accusing its detractors of being anti-nationals.

“Not just high-altitude chikki”. That was the title of the final column I wrote for the Indian Express before I left in 2007. The column welcomed a rare formal awakening within the government about the need to completely overhaul and reinvent India’s doddering, plagued and villified Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). The government’s decision to find ways to kick the DRDO into a shape was, if not directly a result of, at least catalysed by a relentless eight-part series that the Express had frontpaged just days earlier, carefully picking apart the breathtaking incompetence and sense of entitlement that had allowed the DRDO to balloon into a nightmarishly out-of-control and wasteful organisation. The title of my parting column was a reference to the mind-boggling products the DRDO found (sigh, and still finds) the need to expend its energies on, instead of focusing on giving India its basic weapons. (The DRDO’s Defence Food Research Laboratory in Mysore actually researches, among other things, stabilised chikki and cashewnut burfi for troops at high altitude). DRDO chief at the time M Natarajan had written an letter to all employees asking them not to be affected by the “malicious news columns” that seek “distract us from our goal of self-reliance”.

Comment Writing about DRDO for almost exactly ten years now, the one thing I’ve noticed is that hilarity about its misadventures always diffuses into anger. The truth is, the organisation has nobody but itself to blame. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Modi chastised the DRDO at a public event, informing it that the world wouldn’t wait for it, and that delays in crucial weapons projects was unacceptable. The DRDO has enjoyed “friendly” defence ministries in the past, notably under AK Antony. Modi has signalled that the time for fun and games is over. The message is simple: That’s public money you’re using. Soldiers need the stuff you make. You don’t have a moment or a rupee to waste. Get your shit together. Now.

Drdo

Tejas project gets wings again under new DRDO chief

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By Anantha Krishnan M | ENS – BANGALORE 01st June 2013 12:33 PM                 – THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESSavinash The Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) new boss Dr Avinash Chander has put India’s fighter jet project Tejas on his radar, with a possible mission to jettison it out of the current turbulence. In an interview to Express on Friday, soon after New Delhi officially handed over the mandate to pilot DRDO for the next three years, Avinash said that completing the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) of Tejas by September this year and attaining the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) by the end of 2014, are two primary targets he has already set. “After finishing the taking over formalities, I am catching the first available flight to Bangalore to review the project. I am absolutely aware of the issues that are dogging the project and I would now want to see it from close quarters, what the delays are. The Tejas’ IOC and FOC cannot be postponed any further,” said Avinash, who will also double up as the Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister. He said the induction of India’s long-range ballistic missile Agni-V and development of 155-mm gun are other projects that would get his immediate attention. Saying that his task is cut out with many projects reeling under time overruns, Avinash promised to turn around DRDO into a delivery-oriented unit. “There are grey areas still, despite our efforts to stick to the deadline. We are lagging behind in directive energy systems such as high-energy electro-magnetic lasers. We also need to gear up on the materials front,” said the missile scientist. We have proven our abilities with multiple missile programmes and we need to emulate the same in other projects as well,” said the 62-and-a-half-year-old DRDO chief. He said DRDO will be restructured to catch up with the challenges of modern times. “I will take everything one step at a time. I am aware that we need to create the ‘Brand DRDO’ image,” he said It will be a collective team effort. The idea is to take DRDO to the next level. I will ensure that the confidence of users in DRDO will be always high, Avinash said. Incidentally, Avinash will be the second man after former president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, who will serve as the DRDO chief beyond 65 years.

Drdo

India Buys Israeli Aerostat Radar

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January 23, 2009: India is buying two more Israeli EL/M-2083 Aerostat radars. Both India and Pakistan are using radar aerostats (blimps) to fill in the many gaps in the radar coverage of their mutual border. India already has two EL/M-2083s. The United States is providing aerostats to Pakistan. India bought its first EL/M-2083s three years ago, and is planning to deploy a total of six. India needs a total of 13 to cover all its borders. Pakistan is getting six L-88 Aerostat Systems. India’s decision to move ahead on its aerostat system is, in part, motivated by the recent success of LTTE rebels in Sri Lanka, using single engine commercial aircraft to bomb military targets (without much success, but the potential of such low flying aircraft was demonstrated.) Last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai is another motivator, along with the demand that the northwest coast, near Pakistan, be more closely monitored.
Aerostat systems use a 100-250 foot long, helium filled, unmanned blimp equipped with radar and other sensors. The larger of these blimps are more than twice the size of the more familiar advertising blimps. An aerostat is designed to always turn into the wind and stay in the same place. An aerostat is unpowered, and secured by a cable that can keep the aerostat in position at its maximum altitude of 15,000 feet. At that altitude, a large aerostat can carry a two ton payload. The cable also supplies power, which means the blimp can stay up for about 30 days at a time before it has to be brought down for maintenance on its radars. Often, two radars are carried. One is a surveillance radar, the other is a precision track and illumination radar (PTIR). The surveillance radar provides long-range coverage (about 500 kilometers for the EL/M-2083), while the PTIR, which is a steerable system capable of tracking multiple targets, can focus in on items of interest.

Aerostat systems cost varies from $5 million, to over $100 million each, depending on the size of the aerostat and the capabilities of the radar and other sensors. Aerostats work. Kuwait had one in 1990, and the ground radar spotted the Iraqis as soon as they crossed the border. The U.S. uses dozens of aerostat systems in Iraq and Afghanistan, to guard bases. The EL/M-2083 costs about $20 million each. Israel itself is using two of them, and has four more on order.

Drdo

The Lab Optimists

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Open Magazine – feature

BY Madhavankutty Pillai 31st March 2012

From battle tanks to mosquito repellents to dosas in space, the DRDO is a laboratory of sweeping ideas, many of which will take a lifetime to execute.

Last year, the Indian Air Force got a taste of something they didn’t much like. The newspaper DNA reported that IAF officials had been to the Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) in Mysore, where they were shown a tube from which food could be squeezed out. It might sound odd that anyone would eat like that but this was a necessity stemming from the IAF’s induction of long-range aircraft into its fleet—the pilot would have to be fed if he was going to be in air for hours. But the tube-food wasn’t what they expected. It wasn’t a paste or even semi-liquid; it was solid. Negotiating it would not only mess up the cockpit, it would be a minor battle in itself. The IAF rejected it and the DFRL went back to the lab to make it pastier. The same laboratory is also working on something equally unusual—what to feed Indian astronauts when they eventually go up in space. The lab director was quoted as saying that they were exploring all options—from north Indian chapatis to south Indian dosas, albeit in bits and bites.

The DFRL is part of what is known as the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), an umbrella for over 50 laboratories that make everything from tube-food to tanks to combat aircraft to mosquito repellents. Even toilets. In his recent Railway Budget speech, former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi announced that from next year, 2,500 rail coaches would have what he called green toilets to replace the holes that now exist in train latrines. These ‘bio-toilets’ have been developed by the DRDO. The DRDO’s mandate, however, is not to cater to the Railways or India’s space programme. It is to make India self-reliant in defence systems and equipment. Stated ends and realities do not always meet. The main criticism of the DRDO—and it comes mainly from its primary clients, the armed forces—is that its scientists are a bunch of optimists. This is why we hear announcements from them that seem fantastic. Consider this public statement by DRDO Director General VK Saraswat just a few months ago: “We are working on building soldier robots that can work like a human soldier. Such a robot needs a database and artificial intelligence to carry out its activities and the DRDO is planning to build such a robot.” Is he talking of the Terminator? In the same exchange with reporters, Saraswat also talked about robotic mules, which then leads to the question: why would anyone need robotic mules? If the purpose is to transport cargo, won’t a suitable vehicle do?

All this would not be so suspect if the DRDO did not have a reputation for routinely shooting off its mouth. We asked a former Chief of Army and a former Chief of Navy whether it was true that the DRDO was quick with announcements and slow with execution. Says former Army Chief General VP Malik: “I tend to agree with critics who say that. The track record of the DRDO so far, primarily on account of delayed/non-delivery of weapons and equipment promised to the armed forces, does not inspire confidence.”

And this was former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Arun Prakash: “That impression is correct. They are very optimistic and don’t live up to their time schedules, cost schedules, etc. They don’t consult the armed forces enough. They spend the budget the way they think best.”

The Navy, ironically, is the institution that has managed to get the maximum benefit (relatively speaking) from the DRDO and that’s because it made a practice of embedding naval officers into DRDO projects. Admiral Prakash said, “Whenever there’s a naval project going on, there are always naval officers associated with it. Even otherwise the Navy makes available some of its bright officers to the DRDO.”

The two projects for which the DRDO has got the most brickbats are connected to the Air Force and Army—the main battle tank Arjun and light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas. The Arjun project took off in 1972. In 1974, Rs 15 crore was set aside for its development. The project, which finally cost around Rs 350 crore, got delayed by decades and even now many of its components are imported. The DRDO had initially hoped to make 2,000 tanks and, after about 40 years, has 124 operational. The Army is not happy with these and is pinning its hopes on the impending upgrade, the Arjun Mark II. Similar delays have plagued the LCA Tejas. It has been in the making for just under 30 years and is yet to become operational. Its second phase is now scheduled for completion by December 2012. The indigenous engine, Kaveri, for the LCA didn’t live up to standards and an imported engine is being used.

The problem, according to one view, stems from the DRDO wanting to reinvent the wheel. It was a patriotic thing to build everything from scratch, but, as everyone now recognises, it didn’t have the capability in most areas. This can have consequences. General Malik was Chief of Army when the Kargil war happened. In 2009, when he said in a television interview that Kargil casualties could have been lower if the DRDO had delivered on time, it instantly led to a furore. He elaborated on it in an email interview, ‘I was referring specifically to the non-availability of weapons-locating radars, which were required to engage Pakistani artillery and mortars quickly and effectively during the Kargil war. This would have reduced the effectiveness of Pakistani artillery and mortars. In 1997, after long negotiations with a manufacturer, some of these radars were about to be purchased. At the last moment, the DRDO caused this deal to be scuttled, with a promise that it would develop and produce these radars in the next two years; a promise that was never fulfilled. Incidentally, these very radars were purchased from the same manufacturer in 2003.’

There are areas in which the DRDO has been successful, like the missile programme. In the development of naval sonars, weapons avionics and torpedoes too, it is recognised to have done useful work. There is the counter-view that it is unfair to blame it for everything and that the DRDO has become a favourite punching bag. Wing Commander Ajay Lele, a weapons expert and Research Fellow with the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, says the gestation period in military technology is always long. The Lockheed Martin-developed F22 Raptor aircraft went to the drawing board in the Cold War era in the early 70s, but it formally entered the US air force in 2005. “Also, components for defence technology are not easy to come by. The DRDO cannot create everything on its own. It needs industrial back-up and our country lacks in that,” he says.

There is no clear accessible overview of the research DRDO does because there is no proper audit of it. A cloud called ‘Classified’ hangs over it. Prabhu Dandriyal, who worked in the DRDO from 1982 to 2003, is a whistleblower. After being forced into retirement when he started to expose corruption in the institution, he has been on a relentless mission. He says it has reached a stage where he is now called to assist the CBI and IB in corruption cases in DRDO labs because they don’t understand engineering concepts. He filed an RTI application asking how many technical papers DRDO scientists had published in international scientific journals between 1990 and 2010. He didn’t get it until the Chief Information Commissioner passed an order in his favour. “What is the surest way of showing that fundamental research is on? Publishing papers. The reply I finally got was ‘nil’. There had not been a single published paper. All these announcements they make, not one thing happens. All they do is talk,” he says.

Another criticism of the DRDO is that it expends time, money and focus on things that should not really be in its ambit. One journalist who went to a DRDO laboratory 15 years ago as a student was shown a banana that had been reduced to a tenth of its normal weight, the size reduced by 20 per cent. There are high altitude barfis for soldiers to partake of during festivals. There is a medicine for leucoderma. There are cockroach-killing tablets, instant idlis, betel leaf juice and chickenpav bhajis. A fungus found on a caterpillar has been cultured, which among other things is supposedly beneficial in the treatment of impotence. And so on goes the vast and bewildering list.

But, according to Ajay Lele, there is method to this madness. “The armed forces have set requirements. Until and unless the Government tells private industry ‘you provide us an alternative, this is the money, put it into R&D and give us the returns over a period of time’, the DRDO will have to make these things. Take the mosquito repellent. Anyone who is aware of conditions in the Northeast will tell you that the mosquitoes there are very different. Battle casualties are far lower than casualties from malaria. Good Knight [the repellent brand] is not going to develop such a mosquito repellent unless there’s some incentive for it,” he says.

The DRDO is now spinning these technologies commercially. Since 2008, it has a tie-up with Ficci to market products they think have demand. It goes by DRDO-FICCI Accelerated Technology Assessment and Commer- cialisation. Says Shyam Sunder, Deputy Director at Ficci’s Centre for Technology Commercialisation, “The DRDO has nominated more than 200 technologies to this programme. We shortlist them based on our assessment. We then contact Indian companies to introduce these technologies for manufacture or licensing. The response has been very good.”

Nearly everyone save the DRDO itself agrees that the institution has to be reinvented. A committee headed by P Rama Rao, former secretary, department of science and technology, made a number of recommendations. The main thrust of the recommendations was that the DRDO should focus on key areas like missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare and so on. Its laboratories should be restructured and those not central to the new mandate must be hived off to civilian scientific bodies. The report is yet to be implemented because of opposition from the DRDO.

Another way to reinvent the DRDO, say some, is to make it like DARPA in the US, which does no research but instead mediates between the armed forces and the private sector. Unless the DRDO is remodelled, there will inevitably be situations in which the kit for the soldier in Siachen has to be imported while the DRDO works on a robotic mule.

Drdo

How missiles get their names

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(Agni III missile launched from Bhubaneswar in May. (AFP Photo)

 

BANGALORE: How do you name a missile? Or a tank? Or an aircraft for that matter? If you thought Agni, Prithvi and Akash were random names scientists just came up with, you couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Developing missile technology is hard work, and for scientists, their baby. Research keeps them up long hours, away from family and friends and it is but natural that great deliberation takes place before christening these babies.

 

Sanskrit names are always given preference. Scientists believe such names are powerful. All names are, in one way or the other, connected to the function of the missile, aircraft or tank.

Take for instance Agni, the intermediate range ballistic missile. The fire or the energy needed for propulsion is what gave the missile its name.

Explaining the naming procedure, W Selvamurthy, chief controller of life sciences and human resources at Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) said missiles and other products developed by the labs are given names that have a “functional meaning and/or a scientific rationale”.

The director of each project, along with the team, proposes a few names that they think would be appropriate. The proposals go to the chief controller of the lab which is working on the project and the final name is decided keeping in mind the functions of the final product.