Defending the DRDO

Having spent most of my life in the armed forces in projects associated with the DRDO from 1969 to 1995, I read with great interest your series on the DRDO IE, November 12 to 19. I can testify to most of what has been reported. I have also read some of the responses that your series generated as also a few related articles. However, I am constrained to observe that all the writers have skirted the core issue of how such a situation has come to pass.

The DRDO was set up in 1958 to assist the armed forces to achieve self-reliance in modern defence systems. The real problem started in the early 1960s, when Dr Bhagavantam was the scientific advisor SA to the PM. He decided to follow an idea informally discussed by him with his counterpart in the UK, Dr Solly Zuckermann, about centralising research activities for better output. Our SA rushed head-long into implementing this, which was to have a lasting effect on the productivity of our scientific community. He separated R038;D establishments from production units, both in the CSIR and in the DRDO. The consequences of this action are there for all to see. To make matters worse, in the late 1960s the scientific establishment even got a cabinet ban issued, prohibiting government agencies from placing development orders on production units.

Under such a protectionist umbrella, every scientist of any merit in the government R038;D establishment lost production discipline and began using scarce resources to pursue single-minded projects of self aggrandisement and empire-building, quoting unachievable or non-reproducible specifications for the systems and equipment that were thought up. It was forgotten that the only acceptable performance is that which can be reproduced, and repeated performance levels can only be achieved on the production floor, not in a lab.

Worse, the scientists with their immunity, increased autonomy, and power to stop imports and non-accountability, developed a contempt for the users and production agencies. To them, the users were only obstacles in the path of their unbridled self glorification. The only solution to this imbroglio is to reverse the original sin of detaching R038;D from industry.

The writer is a retired rear admiral, based in Pune