Manu Pubby New Delhi, December 22, 2014 | India Today. in
A few months after India’s premier defence research body DRDO was prodded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to empower younger scientists, the organisation is planning to set up a new laboratory that will only have scientists under the age of 35.
While Modi had said that he wants to see five laboratories headed by scientists under the age of 35, DRDO is making a start by setting up a new lab within the Electronics and Communications Systems (ECS) cluster in Bangalore exclusively for young scientists.
The DRDO is currently scouting for scientists within its ranks under the age of 35 to join the lab and has sent out circulars to all its institutions for suggestions and recommendations. The new laboratory is likely to come up within the campus of the Bangalore-based Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE).
The new lab will focus on three specific areas – image processing, cognitive radio and waveforms for communication systems, a circular that has been sent to DRDO establishments across the nation says. It is however not clear yet when the new laboratory will be set up and whether it would have a special provision for career progression of young, talented scientists.
As reported by the India Today, the average age of DRDO scientists is creeping closer to 40 and an internal survey had found that most of its entry-level scientists are unhappy about their career prospects. Almost 57 per cent of all scientists who leave the organisation prematurely do so because of lack of professional satisfaction. Since 2008, nearly 500 entry and mid-level scientists have resigned or taken early retirement while intake of new scientists has barely kept pace. The DRDO’s annual intake of young scientists has dipped to 70 per year.
A deep review of the organisation by the Rama Rao Committee in 2008, had identified five labs working in critical fields such as solid state physics, metallurgy, cryptology and lasers for ’empowered’ status in order to give them the liberty to quickly induct young talent, bypassing the cumbersome selection process. The UPA government never fully implemented the recommendation.
Manu Pubby New Delhi, November 4, 2014 | UPDATED 20:04 IST- Indiatodayin
The government has struck down a request by the DRDO to grant four of its top scientists a service extension with the Prime Minister stepping in personally to ensure that the organisation does not add to its massive bank of scientists who have been working well past their retirement age.
In a move that has brought cheer to the younger scientists of the organization, the PMO refused to entertain a request by the DRDO’s departmental peer review committee to extend the service of four of its lab directors beyond the age of 60 years.
In the past, recommendations of the peer review committee were routinely accepted by the government and in most cases scientists were given an extension of two years to four years. However, as reported by the India Today, the new government is keen to have a younger profile of scientists in the organization and has already expressed concern about the increasing age profile in a field that requires cutting edge technology and expertise.
Sources said that four scientists including Prof MP Kaushik (DRDE Director), Dr VC Padaki (DEBEL Director) and DS Sistla Ravind (LRDE Director) had been recommended by DRDO Chief Avinash Chander for an extension of service. While the file made it all the way through the appointments committee of cabinet, sources said that the request was turned at the Prime Minister’s desk. The DLRL Lab director is also not to get an extension of service.
Officials said that the decision not to grant an extension was taken as part of the government’s new policy to promote younger talent with PM Narendra Modi already instructing that at least five labs should have directors below the age of 35.
However, as things most top scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) who are tasked with creating weapons for future have passed the retirement age of 60 and are on service extensions.
The old age problem starts from the very head of the organization with DRDO chairman Avinash Chander already on two extensions. The previous government even approved a extraordinary contract to give Chander a 18-month contractual tenure from November when he turns 64, the maximum age till which service extensions can be given.
As reported by the India Today, most director generals at the headquarters and the heads of six of DRDO’s 54 labs and establishments are currently on extension. As many as 10 of the 16 top DRDO scientists are on extension. Internal surveys have found that nearly 87 per cent of the young scientists who join DRDO soon get disenchanted with the archaic, rigid structure of the research body that does not reward extraordinary performance with proportional career growth.
For a country that boasts of one of the youngest populations in the world, it is strange that the field that perhaps deals with the most cutting-edge technology is dominated by scientists past their prime. Most top scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) who are tasked with creating future weapons are past the retirement age of 60 and are on service extensions.
Indeed, such is the state of affairs that the head of the research organisation, which encompasses 54 establishments and labs dealing with fields as diverse as ballistic missile defence and insect repellent cream, will get an 18-month contractual tenure from November when he turns 64, the maximum age till which service extensions can be given. This extraordinary contract, beyond the remit of extensions, was specially approved by the previous UPA government more than a year in advance for the present DRDO Chairman Avinash Chander.
Though not new, the old age crisis of the lumbering organisation has worsened as private sector prospects have brightened for young scientists. Internal surveys have found that nearly 87 per cent of the young scientists who join DRDO soon get disenchanted with the archaic, rigid structure of the research body that does not reward extraordinary performance with proportional career growth. Annual intake of new scientists has dropped to just 70, barely enough to replace those who take early retirement, thereby, rapidly increasing DRDO’s age profile.
It is still early to judge the Narendra Modi Government’s policies, but the perception that it is taking a strong stand on the issue has brought cheer to hundreds of young scientists itching to prove their worth in DRDO’s labs across India. A series of events, from the Prime Minister’s remark on promoting young scientists to the cabinet secretariat’s stinging order curbing DRDO’s unilateral age extensions to its scientists, have raised hopes that the problem is finally being addressed.
It’s about time, too. As many as 10 of the 16 top DRDO scientists are on extension. Apart from Chander, nine of the top-graded `Distinguished Scientists should have retired, but most are now on their second extension.
Rules mandate that DRDO scientists must retire at 60. They can, however, be given two two-year extensions under,extraordinary circumstances. Beyond the age of 64, there is no provision for service extension. Yet, the UPA government, in May 2013, approved an Appointments Committee of the Cabinet note to give an 18-month extension to Chander following his “date of retirement of 30.11.2014 on contract basis, with the same terms and conditions as he would be entitled to before the date of retirement”.
By doing this, the UPA went back on its promise to appoint a younger head to DRDO. (Both V.K. Saraswat and M. Natarajan, who preceded Chander, retired at 64.) The special provision made for Chander has become the subject matter of several complaints, the latest by one of DRDO’s own, younger scientists to the cabinet secretariat in August. “The post-retirement contract is not legal and has been made against the rules. A contractual employee can be taken for an advisory role but not to head an organisation,” Navin Gupta, the Kanpur-based DRDO Scientist ‘C’, said in his complaint.
While a convincing argument can be made that age is no criterion for innovation and that experience and continuity is needed to deal with certain technology areas, most scientists on extension in the DRDO are handling primarily administrative positions- from most director generals at the headquarters to the heads of six of DRDO’s 54 labs and establishments.
The impact of the extensions policy on DRDO’s talent pool is immense: an internal survey found that most of its entry-level scientists are unhappy about their career prospects and some 57 per cent of all scientists leave the organisation prematurely due to lack of professional satisfaction. Since 2008, nearly 500 entry and mid-level scientists have resigned or taken early retirement while intake of new scientists has barely kept pace. At a seminar on August 20, Chander admitted this was a problem that required urgent attention. “DRDO’s annual intake of young scientists has dipped to 70 per year, resulting in a rapidly rising average age which certainly is not a good sign for an innovation-centric organisation,” he said. The average age of DRDO scientists is creeping closer to 40.
When Modi, speaking immediately after Chander at the same function, said that at least five DRDO labs should only employ scientists under 35, it was the first indication that his Government was addressing the problem. Many thought that the PM picked the number, five, randomly, unaware that it had come from the most in-depth review of the DRDO ever done.
The review, conducted by the Rama Rao Committee in 2008, had identified five labs working in critical fields such as solid state physics, metallurgy, cryptology and lasers for ‘empowered‘ status in order to give them the liberty to quickly induct young talent, bypassing the cumbersome selection process.
The voluminous report suggested other far-reaching reforms, but the UPA government never fully implemented it. The new Government has dusted it and top officials are studying its recommendations. These include revamping the human resource structure to enable DRDO to hire talent from outside, including Indians working abroad, for key technologies; identifying a set of ’empowered labs’ that have the freedom to hire and fire scientists; lowering the age of entry of talent; and looking abroad for key innovators. “A balance has to be struck. The optimised path may be being selective in granting extensions for specific research projects and not for administrative roles,”says Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani (retd), who was a member of the review committee.
As for the old age issue, one of the first things the Modi regime has done, at least, is get the cabinet secretariat to issue a terse circular on September 26, directing DRDO to stop the practice of unilaterally granting age extensions to its scientists without the approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, which is headed by the Prime Minister. Sources say extensions have been put on hold and all such future requests would be critically examined. Whether the Government is firm in this resolve will be tested by the upcoming grant of a contract extension to the DRDO chairman.
India TodayDRDO Chairman Avinash Chander with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Former DRDO chief V K Saraswat and another senior scientist were on Thursday sentenced to three weeks simple imprisonment by Madras High Court for contempt of court. They had disobeyed its April 2009 order related to re-employment of a clerk in a school run by a wing of the organisation.
Taking a serious view of the non-implementation of its order, a division bench comprising Justice S Rajeswaran and Justice P N Prakash awarded three weeks simple imprisonment to Saraswat and Director of Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, G Malakondaiah and directed them to pay a fine of Rs.2,000 each personally, PTI reported.
The court was allowing a contempt of court petition by S Joseph Raj, who was an employee of the school run by Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE) at suburban Avadi here.
The bench directed the Government to take appropriate departmental action against them for the “reckless, negligence and willful disobedience of the order of the Court”.
The court held Saraswat, a Padmabhushan awardee and former Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister and Director General of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), guilty of Civil Contempt under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
When CVRDE closed the school, he and other employees approached the Central Administrative Tribunal challenging it.
Even after several rounds of litigations before CAT and the High Court and Supreme Court, he was made to suffer, it noted.
On April 30, 2009, the High Court directed the two officials to appoint Joseph Jaj as Senior Technical Assistant (Library Science) within a period of two months.
However, the officials on April 13, 2012, passed an order stating that Joseph Raj was not eligible to be considered as Senior Technical Assistant (Library Science) and that he was not a government servant, prompting him to file the present contempt petition.
“We find the above officers were doing everything within their powers to deny a just benefit to Joseph Raj. We are aware that the officers are occupying very high position in the government, but ensconced in a pedestal, their vision became blurred when it came to the travails of an ordinary employee who was suddenly thrown out of employment, for no fault of his,” the judges said.
It said that even during the contempt proceedings, there was no tinge of remorse or an attempt to correct the mistake by the two officials.
“Therefore, we propose to impose punishment of sentence of imprisonment on the above officials for their willful disobedience of this court order,” it held.
The court also warned the above officials that it was not an end of the matter and directed them to comply with the order forthwith in the matter of appointment.
Appeal to clean DRDO of corrupt and anti-national officials
