Institutions that Shaped India: DRDO, by Ravi Kumar Gupta

With India approaching the 75th year of independence in 2022, there are few institutions that can narrate the roller-coaster journey that the country has taken to become a modern nation. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), a premier research and development (R&D) wing of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), is one such institution. It is due to the persistent and painstaking efforts of DRDO that the country can hold its head high among the comity of nations in key defence and strategic technologies. Today, India can boast of being one of the few countries in the world to have indigenously designed and developed a multi-layered nuclear deterrent capability, an anti-satellite missile system, a fourth-generation combat aircraft, a main battle tank and an array of radars and sensors, among other armaments, for the Indian defence forces. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government focusing on transforming India’s manufacturing base through the ‘Make in India’ initiative and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, the DRDO has assumed an even greater role in India’s quest for self-reliance in defence procurement.