Context: 

This editorial is based on the news “Modi government sets up high power committee to review DRDO” which was published in The Hindustan Times. A high-level committee has been established by the Defence Minister led by the former Principal Scientific Advisor to review the functioning of the Defence Research and Development Organization.

• Recently, the Vijay Raghavan Committee suggested that a Defence Technology Council (DTC) chaired by the Prime Minister should determine the country’s defence technology roadmap.

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Need for Establishment of Vijay Raghavan Committee

• Redefining Roles: It is tasked with generating recommendations to review and redefine the department’s role and align it with futuristic technological requirements in the defence domain.
• Parliamentary Committee: In 2019, the Committee noted that the DRDO’s performance fell short of anticipated standards and emphasised the need for a significant restructuring.
• CAG Report: It criticized the DRDO for categorizing 20 mission mode projects as ‘successful,’ despite not accomplishing the intended goals.
• Dr P Rama Rao Committee: Earlier, the DRDO established this committee to evaluate its operations. Although the DRDO endorsed all its suggestions, it did not implement the proposal to establish a Board of Research for Advanced Defence Sciences (BRADS).

Terms Reference of the Vijay Raghavan Committee

• Restructuring and Redefinition of the roles within the Department of Defence and DRDO. 
• State of the art collaboration to boost involvement from academia, MSMEs, and startups. 
• Accountability Check by creating incentives and disincentives and removing underperformers. 
• Leveraging Expertise along with fostering international collaborations. 
• Infrastructure Modernization to expedite project implementation. 
• Streamlining of Structures to enhance the evaluation process for their performance.

Recommendations of the High Level Vijay Raghavan Committee

• Reset Focus: The DRDO should focus on its original R&D goal for defense. 
• Refrain Engagements in Other Tasks: DRDO should refrain from involving itself in productization, production cycles, and product management. 
• Establishment of Defence Technology Council (DTC): To determine the country’s defence technology roadmap and decide on major projects and their execution.
• The Department of Defence Science, Technology and Innovation should be established.

Challenges With the Functioning of DRDO

• Working as a government PSU, which often regards the entire defence process.
• Impeding defence acquisitions rather than supporting the efficient hardware procurement.
• Project delays resulting in significant budget overages. 
  • Among the 175 projects scrutinised by the CAG, two-thirds encountered challenges in meeting their scheduled timelines, necessitating extensions ranging from 16% to 500%.
  • The HELINA helicopter launched anti-tank missiles, with December 2010 as the deadline was finally tested successfully in 2022.
• Insufficient funding as it has received only around 6% of the defence budget. 
• Inadequate production output as India still imports 70% of its defence requirements.
  • As per SIPRI Report, India remained the world’s largest arms importer for the five-year period between 2018-22.
• Substandard production as armed forces have rejected 70% of the products in the last 15 years.

Continue To Read: Vijay Raghavan Panel on Restructuring And Redefining Role of DRDO

Way Forward

• Establishment of Defence R&D Council comprising top military leaders and scientists with focus on the capability development plans with the long-term integrated perspective plans (LTIPPS). 
  • LTIPPS covers a period of 15 years and it identifies the shape and size of the services over the designated time period based on foreseeable strategic trends
• Exclusive focus on R&D and the domain of defense production needs to be removed. 
• Synergy between DRDO and armed forces for a clear direction and a well-defined vision.
• Joint ventures with select foreign manufacturers to enhance manufacturing capacity.
  • BrahMos Aerospace and Multirole Transport Aircraft Ltd are joint ventures between DRDO and Russia. 
• Decommissioning of redundant projects and DRDO labs, substantial physical assets could be unlocked and repurposed to establish a fund specifically designated for fostering innovation.
• Increase in salary of DRDO Scientists who are working for the nation is required.

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