Vijay Raghavan Report: Boosting DRDO Efficiency

A 9-member panel headed by the former principal scientific advisor to the government Prof. Vijay Raghavan have submitted its report.

Aim of the committee

To review the functioning of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Reasons

Several projects of DRDO suffer from huge delays and cost overruns.

According to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, 23 of DRDO’s 55 mission mode projects could not be completed in time.
According to CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) report, 67% of the 178 projects scrutinised by it had failed to adhere to their initially proposed timelines.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) has set an ambitious defence exports target of Rs 35,000 crore by 2025.

Recommendations of the committee

The DRDO should focus on its original goal of research and development for defence.
It should refrain from involving itself in productization, production cycles, and product management, tasks that are more suitable for the private sector.
The committee has also suggested a Defence Technology Council (DTC) chaired by the Prime Minister, with the defence minister and the National Security Advisor as its Vice Presidents.
It will also have an executive committee chaired by the Chief of Defence Staff (CoDS).
It will include representation from academia and industry, with two members from each sector.
The Council will determine the country’s defence technology roadmap and decide on major projects and their execution.

Defence Acquisition Coucil

The Defence Acquisition Coucil (DAC) is an apex body for clearing major capital acquisitions for defence and it has been headed by the Union Defence Minister.

Separate Department - The panel has also suggested the creation of the Department of Defence Science, Technology, and Innovation under the Defence Ministry.
This department will be headed by a technocrat and it will serve as the secretariat for the Defence Tech Council (DTC).
The committee has recommended the setting up of close to 10 national-level laboratory facilities instead of the existing 40 or more DRDO labs across the nation.

Earlier in 2008, Dr P Rama Rao Committee was constituted to review the functioning of the DRDO and all the recommendations by the Committee were accepted by the DRDO except the creation of a Board of Research for Advanced Defence Sciences (BRADS).

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