Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday stressed the need to focus on technological advancement in the defence sector, in the wake of a double threat along the borders.The defence minister's statement came in the backdrop of border row with China and Pakistan.
He said, "For a country like India, it becomes very important because we are facing double threat on our borders. In such a situation, in order to keep pace with the whole world, it is very important for us to be advanced in our approach to technology."
"Today we are one of the largest armies in the world, the bravery of our army is discussed all over the world. In such a situation, it becomes imperative that we have a technologically advanced army to safeguard the interests of the country," Singh said during the DRDO Academia Conclave.
He said, "Today we also see many big challenges in front of us. When it comes to the defence of the country, then these challenges become more widespread. No organisation can deal with these challenges alone. The most important thing we can do to address these challenges is collective effort and partnership."
The Defence Minister said, "Research plays an important role in the development of any country. Unless we do research, we will not be able to adopt new technology. Today, research and technology have been incorporated in all sectors like economy, politics, society, agriculture and connectivity etc."
"The most important feature of R&D is that it has the ability to convert those things into resources, which we usually did not see from the point of view of resources till now. Take the example of uranium. Don't know how many thousands-millions of years it was lying in the earth.
It may be that it has come into the hands of man many times, and man has left it as a normal thing," he stated.The Defence Minister said, "Today we see that a good number of IITs, IISc, NITs and other universities are available in India. In these institutions, we also get to see a large number of youth.
If academia is associated with DRDO, then DRDO will get experts from many fields together and with a multidimensional and multidisciplinary approach, DRDO will be able to move forward."The Defence Minister said, "The scientists in DRDO are sector specific experts. Obviously, DRDO benefits a lot from their expertise, but they do not have a multidimensional and multidisciplinary approach. Academia constantly updates itself to meet the changing challenges, and the changing environment."
He said that although there is no dearth of new scientists in DRDO, but due to its association with academia, this capacity will increase, and there will be a newness in the functioning of DRDO.Significantly, DRDO has a very advanced infrastructure. Today DRDO has about 50 labs, which do research in different areas of the country.
The Minister said, "If there is a partnership between DRDO and Academia, then DRDO will move towards dual technology. The more this partnership grows, I think India's research sector will grow to that extent."