Tag Archives: Saraswat

Drdo

Saraswat in NITI raises questions

7 Comments

ABHINANDAN MISHRA New Delhi | 31st Jan 2015 – The Sunday Guardian
Questions are being raised by critics in the bureaucracy over the induction of the former chief of Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) V.K. Saraswat as a full time member of the newly constituted NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Ayog.

sarswatSaraswat, who was appointed as the chief of DRDO in August 2009 by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, became the first chief of the DRDO. The DRDO’s financial powers were severely restricted by the Ministry of Defence after an internal audit of the working of the organisation during Saraswat’s tenure pointed out, what were claimed to be financial irregularities. However, it needs to be noted that those close to Saraswat say that such charges were incorrect and that the references made were routine in matters of audit.

According to his critics, the irregularities had come to light after the Comptroller General of Defence Audit (CGDA), raised concerns about research grants and aids given by Saraswat to certain societies headed by scientists. The report had raised questions over Saraswat’s decision to sanction a grant of Rs 288 lakh to Professor V.U. Reddy of C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (AIMSCS), Hyderabad, a society which was headed by Saraswat himself, for a project on a futuristic radar.

The report had stated that the society was known for its achievements in mathematics, statistics and computer science and “is not even generally connected with research relating to futuristic radars”. The report had also stated that the society, despite not having the necessary equipment to carry out such research, was given the grant. However, others say that Professor Reddy is an outstanding scientist who was fully capable of conducting the research for which the grant was made.

The CGDA had also questioned DRDO’s move to sanction another grant-in-aid project costing Rs 298.17 lakh to another scientist from the same society, S.B. Ra. According to the audit, large grants-in-aids were sanctioned to institutes that did not have the required number of researchers or even basic facilities like computers. However, those supporting Saraswat say that what counts in research is “brains and not simply equipment” and point to Saraswat’s “outstanding record in the missile programme” as evidence of his competence.

The audit had also flagged various DRDO chairs being given to ex-DRDO employees. S.K. Salwan, an ex-laboratory director, was appointed to the Dr B.D. Nag Chaudhari DRDO chair for three years at a cost of Rs 83.06 lakh. Kota Harinarayana, former director of Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a DRDO sponsored society, was awarded the Dr D.S. Kothari-DRDO chair for three years at a cost of Rs 83.064 lakh. As per the audit, no public notice was issued by DRDO, which was being headed by Saraswat at the time, to seek applications for these highly paid positions. However, those close to Saraswat dismiss this as a “technicality” and not indicative of any wrong intention.

Saraswat was considered close to former high profile bureaucrat Pulok Chatterjee, who is known to be a confidant of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. His critics say that he had later mounted an aggressive effort to secure an extension of his service, but the UPA government declined to grant him an extension. Saraswat retired in May 2013.

Last year in September, Saraswat was sentenced to three weeks of imprisonment by the Madras High Court for contempt of court. The court also imposed a fine on him and directed the Centre to initiate stringent action against him for disobedience of the April 2009 orders of the court which had asked the organisation to reinstate a former employee who was terminated from the job.

Drdo

Missile boss axe swivels glare on rot

11 Comments

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.the telegraph 15 jan 2016

Drdo

Former DRDO chief sentenced to 3 weeks in jail

2 Comments

PTI Chennai, September 26, 2014 Hindustan Times

Former DRDO chief Dr VK Saraswat and another senior scientist were on Thursday sentenced to three weeks simple imprisonment by Madras High Court for committing contempt of court by disobeying 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, Dr G Malakondaiah and directed them to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000 each personally.

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 Assitant (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.

Drdo

Former DRDO chief sentenced to 3 weeks imprisonment in contempt case

Leave a comment

India Today.in New Delhi, September 25, 2014

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.

 

Drdo

Avinash Chander is new DRDO chief

3 Comments

– The Hindu -NEW DELHI, June 1, 2013

TH31_AVINASH_CHAND_1472913f
Avinash Chander, the man behind Agni series of missiles, was on Friday appointed as the new Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and Director-General of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). He will also hold the post of Secretary, Department of Defence Research and Development. He succeeds V. K. Saraswat, whose term ended on Friday.

“I feel honoured to take up this new responsibility. Dr. Saraswat has set DRDO on a good course. I have to continue and take it to the next level,’’ said Dr. Chander.

Dr. Chander, who was recently awarded Padma Shri, was behind the successful development of 5000-km range Agni-V, enabling the nation to join the elite club of five advanced nations. Development of Agni missiles in highly restrictive international control regimes was possible only out of his technology, perspective planning and efforts. He created the infrastructure, industry base, production lines, and integration facilities to produce different classes of Agni missile systems, a DRDO release said here.

Dr. Chander’s pioneering research in innovative energy management guidance system enabled utilisation of solid propulsion, the main thrust and the backbone of the long-range missile system. Under his leadership, DRDO developed critical technologies such as composite rocket motors and advanced high accuracy navigation system. He also laid the technology road map for missile complex laboratories and led the R&D in the advanced navigation systems, onboard computers, servo valves and seekers.

Dr. Chander joined DRDO in 1972 after completing graduation in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi. He is a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineers.
Priorities

Y. Mallikarjun reports from Hyderabad:

Dr. Chander told The Hindu before leaving for Delhi DRDO had lot of commitments and among the immediate priorities were the induction of Light Combat Aircraft Tejas by next year-end and of Agni-V in the next two years.

Dr. Chander, who obtained M.S. in Spatial Information Technology from JNTU, Hyderabad, is also Vice-President of the Aeronautical Society of India. He has received numerous awards and honours, including DRDO Scientist of the year and Agni Self-Reliance Award.

Drdo

DRDO director Saraswat to retire

4 Comments

DC | 28th Apr 2013

sasarswatdc
Hyderabad: Not many are aware that Dr V.K. Saraswat, director general, Defence Research and Development Organisation and Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, is superannuating on May 31 because of a clause which says that the appointment is for a period of four years or till 64 years of age, that is, which ever happens earlier.

He is 64 years old. Dr Saraswat said that he had not applied for any extension and the decision lies with government. Honoured with a Padma Bhushan recently, Dr Saraswat, based in Hyderabad since 1972, says that he is overwhelmed with the support and recognition he received through these years.

Sources revealed that the search has already begun for short listing the probable candidates and the name would be finalised by a committee to be headed by the Cabinet Secretary. This committee is yet to be constituted and guesstimates suggest the figure to comprise of about 10-12 distinguished scientists.

Though his achievements and DRDO’s giant strides during his tenure are compared with that of former President and former DRDO DG, Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, unlike Kalam’s ten-ure where there was a major thrust on missiles, the DRDO under Saraswat, took a jump in making India self-reliant by developing indigenous critical technologies of missiles and strategic systems, artificial intelligence etc, elevating India on par with advanced nations of the world on the technology front.

Drdo

Govt not to extend DRDO chief’s tenure

17 Comments

ByJosy Joseph, TNN | Mar 13, 2013, 04.14 AM IST

NEW DELHI: A high profile campaign mounted to ensure an extension for the Defence Research and Development Organisation chief has failed to impress the government and it has decided not to extend the tenure of V K Saraswat, who is set to retire in May.

The decision is being seen as part of the ongoing effort to immediately roll out an ambitious roadmap to significantly improve indigenisation of military procurement, pull up military research and minimize corruption in defence deals. The unusual hurry has been brought about by embarrassing revelations about payment of over Rs 350 crore kickbacks in the VVIP helicopter scandal.

The government is finalising a proposal to amend the Defence Procurement Procedure to make ‘Buy and Make (Indian)’ the first priority in defence procurement and thus bring in Indian private sector in a big way into defence manufacture.

There is also a move to remove software and advisory and consultancy services from the list of offset services that foreign defence companies can offer to India. Sources in the military establishment see the move to deny an extension to Saraswat as part of these efforts.

Over the past several months, there has been an aggressive effort by Saraswat and his well-wishers to secure an extension for the missile scientist. Among high profile persons to endorse Saraswat’s extension was former president and the most famous DRDO chief, A P J Abdul Kalam.

Sources said Kalam had sent an eloquent endorsement of Saraswat, who has also been actively seeking to stay in office for a longer period. Besides being the director general of DRDO, he is also the scientific advisor to the defence minister and secretary (defence research and development).

Saraswat’s tenure ran into trouble last year after a special financial audit of DRDO found many lacunae in the way financial powers were exercised by the DRDO chief. The defence ministry later found that a mid-2010 order issued to hike the financial powers of the DRDO chief went against the norms recommended by a high powered committee headed by former defence secretary and present CVC Pradeep Kumar.

The Pradeep Kumar committee had recommended several measures based on the report of Rama Rao committee for overhauling DRDO functioning and improving its efficiency. The financial powers were hiked selectively, but without getting CAG approval as had been recommended, the government later found.

The defence ministry in September 2012 issued an order saying the DRDO chief would take all financial decisions in consultation with the finance division of the ministry. The DRDO chief until then had autonomous power to grant financial approvals up to Rs 50 crore.

Sources said the government is also not happy with the progress made in implementing Rama Rao committee report. An immediate time-bound roadmap is expected for implementation of the report.

Drdo

Punished for highlighting corruption?’ DRDO officer ‘who knew too much’ sacked

4 Comments

By GAUTAM DATT PUBLISHED: 20:51 GMT, 2 November 2012 Mail Today

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Thursday took the unprecedented action of sacking an officer who claimed to be a whistleblower.

Senior administrative officer Prakash Singh, posted at the Defence Science Centre at Metcalfe House in North Delhi, was served with compulsory retirement order.

Singh was due to retire on December 31, 2023. But a DRDO team visited his house at Timarpur and pasted the retirement notice on the wall. Sources said Singh, who had taken leave from work on medical grounds, was not at home at that time. Singh plans to challenge the move in court.

Building of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) office in New Delhi, India

He claimed the action against him was taken by officiating DRDO head H. Selvamurthy in the absence of scientific advisor to the defence minister, V.K. Saraswat, who is on leave.

Serving compulsory retirement notice is the harshest punishment that can be given to a government servant. DRDO sources said the action was taken strictly in adherence to the government rules.

The administrative officer is responsible for the functioning of a laboratory, but Singh had remained absent from work for two years in his previous assignments, they alleged.

The sources said Singh had a history of non-performance and trouble making.

He had made complaints against his seniors in the past which were found to be false, they added.

However, reliable sources said Singh was ‘punished’ for highlighting widespread corruption in DRDO.

The officer had filed a complaint with the CBI against three senior functionaries: Manas Kumar Mandal (director, institute of psychological research), Dr Anil Kumar Maini (director, Laster Science and Technology Centre) and Dr Arun Kumar (director, personnel, at the headquarters).

The CBI referred his complaint to the vigilance department of DRDO. One of these officers – Arun Kumar – was indicted in a recruitment scam by the Central Vigilance Commission that recommended penalty against him in August.

But the DRDO inquiry dismissed the charges of irregularities levelled against the three officials and recommended disciplinary action against Singh for making false complaints.

Drdo

Defence audit raises questions about scientific adviser’s grants

3 Comments

The CGDA has pointed out several infirmities in the grants sanctioned by V.K. Saraswat.

ABHINANDAN MISHRA NEW DELHI | 6th Oct 2012 – The Sunday Gaurdian

he Comptroller General of Defence Audit (CGDA) has raised questions about certain research grants and aids given by the Defence Minister’s Scientific Adviser, V.K. Saraswat, to undeserving societies headed by scientists. These questions have been raised during an audit of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), ordered by the Ministry of Defence. The projects are all part of the DRDO.

According to the report, Saraswat, the scientific adviser, sanctioned a grant of Rs 288 lakh to Professor V.U. Reddy of C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (AIMSCS), Hyderabad for a project on a futuristic radar.

The CGDA has pointed out several infirmities in this sanction. Since Saraswat is the president of the society’s governing body, it was wrong on his part to sanction any grants to the society. More importantly, the society is known for its achievements in mathematics, statistics and computer science and “is not even generally connected with research relating to futuristic radars”. The society also does not have the necessary equipment to carry out such research and did not have the expert manpower when it was given the grant.

The DRDO sanctioned another grant-in-aid project costing Rs 298.17 lakh to another scientist from the same society, S.B. Ra, who is a co-principal investigator for the above project. The CGDA has questioned the sanctioning of large grants-in-aid to institutes that do not have the required number of researchers or even basic facilities like computers.

The audit has also questioned the way various DRDO chairs are being given to ex-DRDO employees. S.K. Salwan, an ex-laboratory director, was appointed to the Dr B.D. Nag Chaudhari DRDO chair for three years at a cost of Rs 83.064 lakh. Kota Harinarayana, former director of Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a DRDO sponsored society, was awarded the Dr D.S. Kothari-DRDO chair for three years at a cost of Rs 83.064 lakh.

As per the audit, no public notice was issued seeking applications for these highly paid positions. The appointment was made by DG, DRDO in a discretionary manner on the basis of nomination. Further, instead of paying a monthly remuneration, the DRDO released a sum of Rs 27.688 lakh each to both of them without deducting tax at source.

The grant to S.K. Salwan was released even before he joined the Dr B.D. Nag Chaudhari DRDO chair. The audit has recommended appropriate recoveries. It has further questioned the rationale behind leaving the ownership of intellectual property rights generated by research performed under this grant with the experts and not with the government.

Drdo

Secret audit reveals DRDO irregularities

Leave a comment

Secret audit reveals DRDO irregularities

TNN Aug 14, 2012, 03.14AM IST

NEW DELHI: A confidential internal audit ordered by the defence ministry has found several financial and other irregularities in the functioning of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which has a network of 50 labs and an annual budget of over Rs 10,500 crore.

 

This comes a day after TOI reported that none of the main recommendations — first by the Rama Rao Committee in 2008 and then a watered-down version by a committee headed by the defence secretary in 2010 — has been implemented to revamp DRDO to ensure that advanced weapon systems are developed for the armed forces without huge time and cost overruns.

The fresh internal audit, conducted by the finance wing of the defence ministry, has raised serious questions about the lack of transparency in DRDO’s functioning, including the alleged sanctioning of Rs 2.80 crore by DRDO chief V K Saraswat to a mathematical society headed by him.

 

DRDO spokesman Ravi Gupta, on being contacted, said the issues raised in the report were “essentially in the nature of preliminary observations” and the audit itself was “vitiated by a faulty process”. “None of the points raised in the audit report stands scrutiny… We are giving a point-wise rebuttal to the baseless conclusions,” he said.

 

The audit report also pointed out that DRDO was splitting sanctions for its projects to avoid seeking approvals from “competent financial authorities”.

Readers comments

Polachan Vm (Egypt)

8 days ago

….if all the black money and the corrupt money is confiscated, we can buy USA three times. ..luckily our leaders and judges are thieves..wishing all poor Indians a very happy Independance day…  9249850342 ..former thief justice..

myalmightygod (India)

9 days ago

God bless india.

Raghubir Singh (Pune)

9 days ago

Internal audit is one of the healthy procedures to have financial checks and balances in place and every government department has such auditing as a matter of routine even in ops units in forward areas. There is nothing secret about it. As a first step there are preliminary observations-majority of which get settled after the explanations are given at working level showing relevant file/documents/authority etc. We can delve on two point’s including MBT Arjun being overweight which has also found mention in the preliminary observation. Best MBT’s of the world like US’s Abram, UK’s Challenger, Germany’s Leopard & Isarel’s Merkava having crew of four all weigh in the region of 62-65 tons as compared to 58 tons that of Arjun with four crew which is great feat in weight management! MBT Arjun has withstood enough flak for decades & proven its merit in the desert trials pitted against blue eyed T-90. But eventually DRDO would have to develop newer third generation tank as China has done. Splitting the sanctions is generally to win race against time for projects which otherwise would get stuck up in red tapes -for which there should be red carpets to roll on smoothly? Splitting by remaining within limit is permissible and let us not grudge this financial authority bestowed on authorities like Directors.

spot on (Paris) 9 days ago

DRDO Chief V K Saraswat was first one to vouch for the Tetra Trucks performance and suitability when former Army gen VK Singh blew the scam in the open. Once scam thickened and stink ed too much, this guy faded in the air. CBI and media doing good work for the khangress family. My friend worked for many year for DRDO and he told me that most of the project engineers outsource work to companies formed by their own family members. Please probe middle management too to show the rot.

dasg (NY) replies to spot on 8 days ago

No wonder the morons continue to buy 70% of the weapons, unmatched by any nation with even 50 million let alone 1200 million. VK Singh remarks must have sent shiver down this crook Saraswat’s spine. But nothing will happen, whole edifice is rotten, and as a result honest people like VK Singh are cast as vilians and crooks like Saraswat are applauded.

dasg (NY) 9 days ago

Ha ha ha Mathematical Society! Good one. Corruption thy name is Indian. But then he is thinking if Sonia, Kamadi, Kanimozi, Raja, Laloo, Pawar and almost everyone why not me. ISRO Nair too made enough. The whole edifice has become rotten to the core.

Mohan (London) replies to dasg 8 days ago

I will like to share my personal experience about DRDO. I have an international reputed Masters in science from one of top European university.I studied from top 10 Indian engineering college. I am working abroad in a research lab, applied for a job @DRDO; they didn’t even select me. While most of the scientists who work in DRDO are below average, lack any capability to produce anything substantial, they wont choose NRI candidates as they believe in corruption. Dumb engineers and scientists want to maintain their status quo without delivering any result!!

bg (hyd) replies to Mohan 6 days ago

“yet another these are sour grapes story”

dasg replies to Mohan 7 days ago

Well Indian or for that matter local recruitment is based solely on your abilities, in India foremost your contacts. That is 1200million people, have not single University among top 100 let alone top ten in the world. They are now being beaten black and blue by China. You have dull people and lazy people, dull people vote along caste/parochial line people like Laloo, Maya, Mulayam, Kuruanidhi, Raja who support crooks like Sonia, Rahul. So its is dullness of mind that they adhere to divisive, highly detrimental and dangerous casteism. Lazy people are middle class who cant up their fat backside to participate in the electoral process even to the extent of casting vote.