Indore: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), country's flagship R & D organisation, will hand hold state's MSME units technologically and financially, in an effort to make the nation self-sufficient in defence equipments. Organisation's lab in Gwalior would act as a bridge between DRDO and state's entrepreneurs, this was announced by DRDO chairman G Satish Reddy.
He was addressing over 600 owners of MSMEs and start-ups during 'Business Opportunities for MSMEs in Defence Sector', an event organised jointly by MP's MSME department and DRDO. The event was also attended by MSME Minister OP Saklecha, MP Shankar Lalwani and Industry Commissioner P. Narhari. Reddy said that DRDO had 1,700 patents, which it was ready to share with interested industries in the state. " Currently we are importing 40% equipments, goods to meet military requirement. We will manufacture this in India," he said.
He said that Defence Research Development Establishment (DRDE) in Gwalior, the nodal lab for the development of Chemical and Biological defence technologies, would work as a bridge among DRDO, the State Government and entrepreneurs. "Recently we appointed Dr. Manmohan Parida as director of DRDE. We will form a team under his leadership, which will work with local units."
He said that the DRDE lab developed hand sanitizer just within three days of announcement of lockdown on March 25, 2020. The same lab also developed DDG (2DG) dose, which helps improve Oxygen saturation level in body, he added. He said that DRDO was not into production of equipments. It only indulges in research and development and later hands over the technology to private or government industries for commercial production.
Cyber security and AI: DRDO has started working on cyber security and Artificial Intelligence (AI). We have developed a centre in DRDO lab in Pune. It will get work done online.
