New Delhi (NVI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today said that in India’s endeavour to become a superpower, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) can play a crucial role.
“We want to make India superpower. For that, India has to become super economic power as well as super military power. In that process, if there is any major contribution, then it is by scientists like you, or it can be,” Rajnath said while addressing DRDO officials at an annual award ceremony.
The Defence Minister lauded the DRDO scientists for successfully developing and testing defence systems. Notably, DRDO has been playing a crucial role in meeting almost all weapon systems’ requirements for armed forces, especially in the wake of India-China face-off, by developing indigenous technology.
Rajnath also handed over three indigenously developed DRDO systems to Army, Navy and Air Force at the event held at DRDO Bhawan in New Delhi.
The Defence Minister handed over the Indian Maritime Situational Awareness System (IMSAS) to the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Karambir Singh, ASTRA Mk-I Missile to Air Chief Marshal, Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria and Border Surveillance System (BOSS) to the Chief of Army Staff, General MM Naravane, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
In addition to this, during the function, Singh also gave away awards to DRDO scientists for outstanding contributions in various categories.
DRDO Lifetime Achievement Award – 2018 was given to NV Kadam for his contributions for developing control and guidance schemes for missiles, MoD said.
Excellence awards were given to academia and industry for technology absorption. Besides, individual awards, team awards, technology spin-off awards, techno managerial awards and awards in other categories were also given.
Complimenting the DRDO scientists for their outstanding work in developing defence systems, the Defence Minister said that DRDO has been developing high-level technologies for defence systems for increasing the capacity and capability of armed forces.
He also lauded the role of DRDO scientists in combating COVID-19 pandemic. He congratulated all the scientists who received the awards and wished them the very best for their future endeavours.
Speaking at the event, Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, congratulated the scientific fraternity for their achievements and emphasised on the need of working at the fast pace so that the country will have most of the indigenous systems.
The development of these high technology systems has led to higher self-reliance in Defence technologies, he said.
Among the systems handed over was BOSS. An all-weather electronic surveillance system which has been deployed at Ladakh border area for day and night surveillance. The system facilitates monitoring and surveillance by automatically detecting the intrusions in harsh high-altitude sub-zero temperature areas with remote operation capability.
The IMSAS, handed over to Chief of Naval Staff, is state-of-the-art, fully indigenous, high performance intelligent software system that provide Global Maritime Situational Picture, Marine planning tools and Analytical capabilities to Indian Navy.
Furthermore, the ASTRA Mk-I, which was handed over to Air Chief Marshal, is the indigenously developed first Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, which can be launched from Sukhoi-30, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Mig-29 and Mig-29K.
Several senior functionaries from the Ministry of Defence and Government of India were also present at the function.
-CHK/ARK
