Tag Archives: Defence Research

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Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pulls up DRDO, asks it to focus more on research and development

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“I would like to see equal fervour among innovators, among startups, among those who want to do something for defence related activities,” Sitharaman said | Photo Credit: ANI

 Nov 27, 2018 | 21:26 IST | ANI =TIMESNOWNEWS.COM
Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Nirmala Sitharaman opined that there is keenness among a lot of young minds to come back to India from abroad owing to the growth of startups in the country.
New Delhi: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday pulled up the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and asked it to focus more on Research and Development (R&D) and exploit the opportunity and support being extended by the central government. Speaking at the launch of the Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti, which aims at increasing intellectual property right (IPR) to reduce the transfer of technology and dependence on foreign companies, the defence minister said, “DRDO should focus, in fact, refocus on R&D and it should be on toes to make themselves nimble to innovations.”

She also called upon all stakeholders to step up, as more was “needed to be done to nurture innovation in Defence, which could be translated into a commercially viable solution.” Sitharaman further said that the present ministry hierarchy should break the traditional barriers to identify, motivate and support people who are “capable to innovate, fabricate and manufacture in-house.”

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Sitharaman opined that there is keenness among a lot of young minds to come back to India from abroad owing to the growth of startups in the country. “I would like to see equal fervour among innovators, among startups, among those who want to do something for defence related activities,” she said. Crediting Secretary of Defence Production Dr Ajay Kumar for the mission Raksha Gyan Shakti, Sitharaman observed that this operation is giving the “impetus needed for moving towards innovating for defence.”

“Defence is always seen as a very difficult area to come in with a commercialised product in hand. Defence is seen as an area in which probably much transparency doesn’t prevail when you want to buy a thing when you want to procure it for the purpose of defence. We need technical requirement for defence, be it of quality, be it of certain standards for performance or be it a necessity for use,” she explained. Sitharaman also stressed on the hesitancy of innovators to approach the Defence Ministry for the commercialisation of their products.

“Anyone who wants to innovate or anyone who wants do anything towards commercialising some product, which is patented hesitates to approach defiance related sectors. They would rather go to food industry due to preconceived notion that it is very difficult to even break in and then have a dialogue and then see that there is a possibility of commercially producing something that the defence might need,” Sitharaman added.

“Each time an innovation is patented the innovator may not be interested in producing it. You need to find somebody to produce it on a commercial scale. We make sure to facilitate it, make finances available and find a market for it,” the defence minister said.

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Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy appointed DRDO Chief

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NEW DELHI, AUGUST 25, 2018

The post had been vacant since May after the then Chief Dr. S. Christopher stepped down
The Government on Saturday appointed eminent scientist Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy as the Chairman of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The top post of the DRDO had been vacant since May after the then Chief Dr. S. Christopher stepped down.

“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Dr. G Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri to the post of Secretary, Department of Defence Research & development and Chairman, DRDO for a period of two years with effect from the date of assumption of charge or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” a Government order said.

A missile scientist, Dr. Reddy was holding charge as the Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister and also as Director General of the strategic missiles division.

As head of the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), he is credited with the indigenous development of seeker technology, a critical component in missiles.

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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.

 

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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.

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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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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.

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Foreign nations have shown interest in Akash missile: DRDO

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PTI|May 19, 2018 The Economic Times Defence

There is a growing demand for the Akash, an all-weather medium-range surface-to-air missile: DRDO Chairman

COIMBATORE: Several countries have evinced interest in procuring the indigenously developed Akash missile, a top Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) official said here today.

There is a growing demand for the Akash, an all-weather medium-range surface-to-air missile, and many nations have shown interest in it, DRDO Chairman S Christopher told reporters here.

Developed by the DRDO, the Akash missile system has the capability to neutralise aerial targets such as fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles as well as ballistic missiles.

Talks were underway with the countries and “it (orders for the missile) will come”, Christopher said without divulging further details.

To a query on the allocation for research and development, he said this year the organisation has a budgetary allocation of Rs 2,000 crore.

Christopher, who was here to participate in a function, also said there were export inquiries for the BrahMos missile.
BrahMos is joint venture between the DRDO of India and NPO Mashinostroyenia(NPOM) of Russia.
PSU Bharat Dynamics Ltd Chairman and Managing Director, V Udaya Bhaskar said the Akash missile is going to be in good demand for another three to four years as both the Indian Air Force and the Indian Army need them in good numbers.

L&T Board whole-time Director (Defence) Jayant Patil said a new aerospace facility in the district will become operational in another 10 months and it will manufacture rocket motors for ISRO.

The defence arm of the L&T, which has so far invested Rs 500 crore in the unit here, is also supplying air frame to BrahMos missile and will expand the product range in the near future.

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ALL IS NOT WELL WITH DRDO FUNCTIONING

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Wednesday, 09 May 2018 | PNS | Dehradun 
In a big goof up which puts up a question mark over the functioning of country’s premier institute involved in research in the field of defence, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), an official posted as Estate Manager in Dehradun has been transferred to a position which doesn’t even exits. In an order dated April 27, the directorate of personnel, DRDO Bhawan, New Delhi transferred Estate Manager, Maintenance, Dehradun, D P Singh to Project office, Dehradun along with 12 other officials. As per the order his place in Dehradun would be taken over by the Estate Manager, Hyderabad, William Paul. The transfer order bears signature of personnel director Gopal Bhushan.

The order clearly states that the transfers would be applicable from May 1 and the transferred personnel should take new charge assigned to them within 30 days of the issue of the order. The order has however created a piquant situation in Dehradun as there is no project office here as depicted in the order. When contacted the Director ITM,(DRDO) Sanjay Tandon said, “ The order has come from headquarters so one should inquire about it from there only. It could be a typographical error or there could be a plan to set up new office here.”

It is pertinent to mention here that D P Singh has been working on the post of Estate Manager from last 12 years. He was looking after the task of appointment of contract workers in all three institutes of DRDO in Dehradun, the Defence Electronic Application Laboratory (DEAL), Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE) and Institute of Technology Management (IMT).

The transfer of D P Singh was long overdue and the way he was transferred from one office in Dehradun to another nonexistent office in Dehradun only has raised many an eyebrow in all three offices of DRDO located here.