Missile man Avinash Chander appointed new DRDO Chief

The scientist,who is currently on an extension,will serve as the next DRDO Chief for three years till the time he turns 65. He will hold the three posts of Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister,Secretary Department of Defence R&D and Director General of DRDO.

By selecting Chander as the new chief,the government has taken a conservative position by choosing the senior most of the serving scientists of the organisation for the top post. In the run up to the selection,there was speculation that the government would consider a scientist with a background in the aeronautical field,given that many upcoming major projects of DRDO will be from this area.

After his name was announced on the last day of the tenure of outgoing chief V K Saraswat,Chander said he was “honoured to take up this new responsibility” and that he will try to take DRDO “to the next level”.

A Padma Shri awardee,Chander has led the design and development of the Agni 1,2,3,4 and 5 series of missiles that culminated with the latest of the series undertaking a successful test that demonstrated a range of over 5000 km.

“He created the infrastructure,industry base,production lines,and integration facilities to produce different classes of Agni Missile Systems,” a DRDO spokesperson said. Chander joined DRDO in 1972 after completing graduation in Electrical Engineering from IIT-Delhi and obtained MS in Spatial Information Technology from JNTU,Hyderabad.