Defence Minister Mr Arun Jaitley said the DRDO offered a large talent pool for the defence sector in the country but in view of the “disturbed neighbourhood” shared by India, it seems too “inadequate in terms of numbers”. Speaking at a DRDO award function in New Delhi, the Defence Minister said national security was the top priority of the government and technology was the best guarantor for the country to provide security. Mr Jaitley said DRDO has achieved a lot in the last five decades in terms of the Agni-5 missile, INS Arihant nuclear submarine and various other programmes. He said the government wants India to be a hub of defence manufacturing and a number of steps such as increasing FDI cap in defence sector and delicensing the military manufacturing sector have been taken. So far the country has been doing some research and some defence manufacturing but the process was slow and there was more reliance on imports for meeting weapon systems’ requirement, he said. Mr Jaitley said the government was actively considering the performance-related incentive scheme proposed by the DRDO for its better-performing scientists and allowing induction of more scientists in the organisation. DRDO chief Mr Avinash Chander had flagged the issue of low intake of only 70 young scientists in the organisation every year in his speech. Mr Chander said the value of products developed by it is worth Rs 1.69 lakh crore and as per Prime Minister’s directives, the agency was working towards indigenising the military equipment requirements of the armed forces.
Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/
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