DRDO aims to achieve self-reliance in defence by 2020 : Tessy Thomas

Tenali (Guntur): The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is aiming high to provide leadership and achieve self-reliance capabilities by 2020 apart from establishing several manufacturing hubs, according to Director of DRDO’s Advanced Systems Laboratory, Dr Tessy Thomas.

Speaking at the 23rd Yelavarthy Nayudamma Memorial Award presentation ceremony after receiving the Trust award from Prof Shantha Sinha, founder of Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiah Foundation at the NRK Kalyana Kala Sadan here on Sunday, Dr Tessy Thomas emphasised that self-reliance and indigenisation are vital for achieving the goal of ‘Make in India’ concept. She said that the DRDO, with its strong knowledge base and technology development sinews, is initiating missile programmes like Agni, Prithvi, Dhanush, Nag, Aakash, BrahMos, Astra, Nirbhay, etc., aircraft programmes like LCA- (Tejas, Nishant, Lakshya, etc.) and combat vehicles like MBT (Arjun, Avionics and Tracking Systems.

Dr Tessy Thomas said various strategies have already been promoted by the DRDO for development of technology transfer to industry; technology licence production for upgradation and indigenisation; concurrent production and procurement to meet the immediate needs and parallel development to achieve self-reliance; and consortium of industry and academia and added, “with these initiatives, in missile areas, our self-reliance index is 100 per cent in technology and 90 per cent in components.” Geeta Varadan, Director of the Advanced Data Processing Research Institute of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), who also concurrently received the 23rd Dr Yelavarthy Nayudamma Memorial Award, in her lecture on ‘Remote Sensing Technology for National Needs’, said that these technologies were increasingly becoming relevant to the society at large, since they offered an “end to end” solution for a variety of national needs. With more and more potential users handling smart phones as part of their routine, thanks to the paradigm shift that had taken place by making the geospatial engine available to them, “it is going to be a continuous effort by our scientists and engineers to fulfill the needs of end-users”, she maintained. Geeta pointed out that remote sensing had also opened up avenues for servicing many time-critical applications like flood inundation estimation for relief operations, landslide hazard mapping and resulting damage assessment, early warning of cyclone onset to take precautionary measures to reduce life risks to human and livestock resources, she added.

Earlier the chairman of the trust R Sampath in his welcome address stated that that the Nayudamma Trust had been founded to perpetuate the memory of the internationally renowned scientist and technologist Dr Nayudamma who hailed from Tenali and died in the Kanishka air crash over the Atlantic in 1985.