It’s amazing how technological advancements in India go side by side with the ancient believes that after thousands of years haven’t changed a bit. Just look at the photo – this concoction of green chilies and lime is an evil eye warder, generally known as “nazar battu” or “nimbu-mirchi totka”.
DRDL is DRDO’s missile lab, see the following
By Hemant Kumar Rout | Express News Service | Published: 23rd December 2016
BHUBANESWAR: Once a pride for Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), India’s own cruise missile project Nirbhay is on the verge of closure.
A highly placed source told ‘The New Indian Express’ that the project is likely to be closed as the missile has failed to deliver desired results even 12 years after the project was launched. A review of the project will be conducted shortly.
Nirbhay is the country’s first indigenously built long-range sub-sonic cruise missile which can be compared with America’s Tomahawk in terms of its capability. Designed by Bengaluru-based Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), the missile was designed to fly at different altitudes ranging from 500 meters to four km.
Launched in 2004 at a cost of Rs 48 crore, the projected date of completion (PDC) for the prestigious project was December 31, 2016. However, under trial since 2013, the missile is yet to perform as expected after four attempts in the last four years.
The project has been plagued with difficulties as the scientists are still struggling to fix the problems in the flight control software and navigation system while some others point fingers at the hardware.
While the Research Centre Imarat (RCI) blamed ADE-developed software, ADE was pointing towards the defective hardware supplied by RCI. “However, it could not be ascertained which is defective, whether the software or hardware, but Nirbhay missile failed in its fourth attempt,” an insider said.
There has been problem with the control software since beginning. The RCI had developed navigational hardware for their applications and it was adopted by ADE for Nirbhay. There are always differences between ADE and RCI regarding its functional efficacy, the source claimed.
Defence experts have raised questions on the requirement of such a subsonic missile, which can cruise at a speed of 0.8 Mach, when supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, developed jointly with Russia, is already inducted in the armed forces.
BrahMos, which flies at a speed of Mach 3, has a strike range of 290 km. Though Nirbhay can strike targets 1,000 km away, with India joining the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), it can now develop long range cruise missiles as joint ventures.
While initially the expected cost of ‘Nirbhay’ was around Rs 10 crore per piece, DRDO has so far spent more than Rs 100 crore on R&D and trials.
DRDO Chief Selvin Christopher and Project Director of Nirbhay Vasanth Sastri did not respond to the calls and queries from ‘The New Indian Express’. Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister G Satheesh Reddy, however, said he is unaware of any such move.
14 September2016 – BuisnessLine – The HIDU
HYDERABAD, SEP 14.: BHVS Narayana Murthy, an expert in Avionics has been appointed as Director, Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Hyderabad.
During the past three decades he has made contributions towards design, development and delivery of onboard computers, Missile launch processors, real-time mission software etc
He is an alumni of NIT, Warangal. For his contributions to various defence R&D projects, he won several awards and recognitions. The Astronautical Society of India Rocket and Related Technologies Award, AGNI Award for Excellence in Self Reliance as a team Leader, DRDO Scientist of the Year Award being some of them.
The RCI is a premier DRDO laboratory of APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex spearheading the design, development and delivery of state-of-the-art Avionics Systems for entire Indian missile development programmes.
The Avionics Systems (Onboard computers, Navigation, Control) developed under the leadership of Narayana Murthy has played a key role in the success of the Indian ICBM class Agni 5 and other missions, said a DRDO press release.
SUJAN DUTTA New Delhi, Jan. 14: The sacking of Avinash Chander as the country’s top defence technocrat yesterday has brought back into focus allegations of murky deals with international arms lobbies, corruption and nepotism, professional jealousies at the top and a failure to deliver usable and accurate weapons.
The rot had institutionalised itself over the years — long before Chander was appointed to the post on May 31, 2013 — and marked even the tenure of his predecessor, V. K. Saraswat. Saraswat was last week appointed as a full member of the Niti Ayog, which took over some functions of the Planning Commission, with the rank of a minister of state.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said today that even he had learnt of the sacking of Chander from the media though he had recommended that the office should be held by a younger person. Like Antony, the defence minister in the UPA II regime, Parrikar has also promised a revamp of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that Chander headed.
In addition to his job as the head of the DRDO, Chander was also the scientific adviser to the defence minister.
In New Delhi, the headquarters of the DRDO is a gleaming block of Jaipur sandstone behind South Block. Entry is restricted. The terrace on the third- floor offers a view of the central vista rivalled only by the buildings on Raisina Hill. It is from here every other month, year on year, that the DRDO makes claims of successful missile tests, and of being avant- garde in technology.
The claims only make for a smokescreen that barely dispels the rot that has set into the government outfit that this year has a budget of more than Rs 15,000 crore for 52 establishments and 30,000 employees, including 7,500 technologists.
DRDO insiders believe Saraswat and Chander never got along though both had similar profiles before rising to the top. Both Saraswat and Chander are missile technologists, both protégés of the original missile man, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. While Saraswat was credited within the organisation for the development of the surface- to- surface Prithvi missile and its variants, Chander was honoured for his contribution to the Agni series.
Parrikar said the impression that Chander had been given an extension by his government after superannuating in November ” was wrong”. Chander’s appointment for three years was approved in May 2013. Under the terms of the order by the appointments committee of the cabinet, he would retire in November and continue to serve for a further 18 months on a contract.
” And my contention was that such a post of that importance cannot be held by a person on contract,” the defence minister said.
In the UPA regime, Saraswat, Chander’s predecessor, ran into tough times with the establishment himself.
Antony restricted his fiscal powers and instituted an audit of the DRDO by the Controller General of Defence Accounts ( CGDA).
The report by the CGDA said, among other things, that the DRDO was entering into agreements with Israeli firms unnecessarily. It specifically named one Israeli firm, Semi- Conductor Devices Ltd, with which DRDO had entered into an arrangement that the auditors questioned.
” Chander was actually against this,” DRDO insiders say. ” He was trying to source components for missiles from other countries and that probably angered his masters,” alleges Prabhu Dandriyal, a right to information activist who is almost always investigating the operations of the DRDO. The CGDA audit also said that barely 10 per cent of the projects undertaken by the DRDO were eligible for consideration by the users ( the armed forces).
On November 29 last year, a day before Chander was to superannuate, the Prime Minister’s Office, in response to an RTI request from Dandriyal, said it had received three complaints against Chander. Two had been forwarded to the national security adviser and the cabinet secretary. A third complaint was still being studied.
The third complaint was from Navin Prakash Gupta, who is with the DRDO’s Advanced Systems Laboratory ( ASL), a Hyderabad- based outfit that Chander himself headed before moving to New Delhi.
In the seven- page complaint ( with 17 annexures), Gupta questioned the appointment of Chander as the head of the DRDO after two extensions ( till he was 64 years of age) and doubted if he could be called a scientist of ” international stature” as the ACC (appointments committee of cabinet) had remarked in May 2013 ( under the UPA regime).
In other complaints, the DRDO technologists alleged that Chander had promoted Tessy Thomas over other more qualified peers. Thomas was described in media as India’s first ” missile woman” after she was made project director for the Agni- IV missile.
In the complaints, Chander was also alleged to have created a post for Thomas’s husband, a retired commodore from the navy, and accommodated him in a DRDO laboratory, overriding the claims of qualified DRDO employees.
The responses of the government to the complaints are still pending.
Saraswat, after retirement, joined the Centre for Technology and Scientific Studies as its dean. The centre is associated with the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), the think tank that used to be headed by Ajit Doval, now the national security adviser.
Sources in the defence ministry said that although Chander would technically serve till January 31, he had been ” attached” to the PMO. He was to have met a delegation from a western country this morning but the appointment was cancelled.
Defence minister Parrikar has said that ” things will happen” in the DRDO. In the weeks ahead, the DRDO will have to be consulted on important technologytransfer issues with the US. An India- US framework agreement on defence is due to be renewed during the visit of President Barack Obama later this month. A revised list of items for technology transfer under a Defence Trade and Technology Initiative ( DTTI) is in the works.
Live India News Desk | Written on 5 Apr, 2014 at 20:51 in India |
Live India exposed how national security is compromised by the goverment. Itis related to Balco i,e Bharat aluminium company limited located in Korba,Chattisgarh.
The story talks about a chinese company named SEPCO being awarded a contract for setting up of a power unit inside BALCO, a Navratna company. At BALCO,DRDO’s research and development centre is in operation.They are making aluminium alloys like AA2014 ,AA2219 etc for different kind of missiles.
They are also producing various kinds of aerospace material for ISRO and Vikram Sarabhai space centre.Apart from this missile casing,designing and assembling is also being done here.
Vedanta,a UK based company,being the majority stake holder(51 percent) took the arbitrary decision of giving the contract to a chinese company SEPCO for setting a power unit inside BALCO thus compromising the national security interest.Interestingly SEPCO went a step further by subletting construction work to a company called Gannon Dunkerley.
This company claims to be an Indian company but it has its business interest mostly in Dubai,Abudhabi,Gulf and middle-east. This was done despite govt of India’s instructions that contract should be given to an indian company.The Govt of India remained a silent spectator to Vedanta’s decision.No action was taken.
Prior to entry of the chinese a shocking incident took place at BALCO. Missile proof and design were stolen from BALCO.Adding to that Vedanta,the 51percent stake holder in Balco sold missile assembly line under the pretext of it being oldwith taking due permission or clearance from defence ministry and other security agencies.
A congress MP Dadai dubey wrote a letter to then prime minister and home minister about it.But no action was taken.Now the govt has approved complete disinvestment of BALCO in favour of Vedanta.Finance minister P.chidambaram was non executive director of Vedanta from Nov 2003 till 22nd may,2004 a day before formation of UPA1.
He was given finance portfolio in the UPA govt.Allegation is that he facilitated complete disinvestment of BALCO, a Navratna company in favour of Vedanta.
Respected Smt Sonia Ji It is the 12th anniversary when entire country has remembered their brave son’s who laid their lives.
Simultaneously people remembered the post KARGIL WAR analysis, our strength, our weakness in 1999, the role of DRDO in consuming thousand and thousand crores in the name of technology development. Than DRDO after KARGIL WAR promised to utilize the nation’s resources for deliver the indigenous develop arsenal to our defence forces.
But slowly the total energy was constraint to see big flow of funds on corruption and nepotism. Issues like low intensity conflict were not addressed instead funds were given under CARS program to near and dear of top brass sitting in DRDO Hqrs.
Passed twelve years has seen the incompetency of two scientific advisers namely Dr V K Atre (Imported) and Dr Natrajan whose MBT project since 1972 is still looking for induction.
IGMDP was unceremonial closed. The design of GTX engine is being developing in massage parlour of Bangalore instead of GTRE by Sh T Mohan Rao the wealthiest director of DRDO.
AWACES is integrated by importing import substitute by CABS.
The RADAR BFSR (Battle Field Surveillance Radar) and WLR ( Weapon Locating Radar) is being studied theoretically “ DRDO came in way of acquiring key radars before Kargil: Malik”
The statement of former Army chief V P Malik, who led the army during the 1999 Kargil war, has said casualties in the conflict could have been reduced had DRDO “not come in the way” in the acquisition of weapon-locating radar
SASE (Snow Avalanche Study Establishment) is doing avalanche study in Chandigarh while ITB jawans are losing their lives during avalanche breakdown for which prediction were made that there won’t be a breakdown.
The famous bullet proof jacket for Sh Hemant Karkare (lost his life in 26/11 Mumbai) was also tested by TBRL, DRDO expert and given clean chit.
On behalf of Poor tax Payers, I request SA To RM to shoulder the responsibility and fix the accountability to save the image of DRDO.
In this scenario what the poor tax payers needs.
i) Missile Defence using HARP (High Altitude Research Project)
ii) 99.99% round the clock communication network.
iii) Seizing & freezing the auto engine from a safe distance to counter fidayeen attack.
iv) Deep sea (400m-500m) submarine communication technology for mission mode operation
Thanking you
Regards
Prabhu Dayal Dandriyal