Budget has never been a constraint for DRDO: Joint director BK Das

It is the mission of our government that we should be able to be self-sufficient to its core, Das said, adding that this can be achieved when in-depth research is done on the basic field, and semiconductors happen to be one of them.

DRDO joint director Binoy Kumar Das on Sunday said that budget has never been a constraint for the premier government research organisation engaged in designing and developing state-of-the-art defence technologies and weapon systems. He said that there has always been great support from the Union government for making the defence research and production sector self-sufficient. Speaking to reporters on the Union Budget proposal presentation day, the distinguished scientist said, ''The government has always had unconditional support for DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation), and budget has never been a constraint for us.'' He said that the DRDO has been asked to work on the next-generation technology, which nobody in the world has got. ''We have to work on such equipment which our armed forces are dreaming to have, and we can't wait to import such equipment because with today's changing geopolitical situations, the kind of war scenarios happening, the dynamism has changed,'' he said after receiving the JIS Maha Samman award for his contributions in the fields of science and India's Defence research at the Science City auditorium here. He said that the young, fresh and best minds are together working to build a great India second to none, for which this budget is going to help the Defence research and manufacturing sector in India to realise and empower the systems. ''This budget is going to help us to realise and empower our systems that what we develop...and make my country an economic superpower by export as well,'' he said. ''We have to develop the best of the systems which will be exported from India to the rest of the world, so we are at a technology inflection point of this country,'' Das said. Stating that India was denied import of defence technologies a few decades back, he said, ''Today with pride we are denying import.'' He said that India, which has made significant breakthroughs in the semiconductor field by mastering the Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology, is working on self-sufficiency to the core in semiconductor technology. ''It is the mission of our government that we should be able to be self-sufficient to its core,'' Das said, adding that this can be achieved when in-depth research is done on the basic field, and semiconductors happen to be one of them. ''Who knows, a few years later (export of) even the basic semiconductor could be stopped to India,'' the DRDO joint director said when asked about the breakthrough in GaN technology, possessed by a select few countries including the USA, China and France, and had earlier been denied to India. Asserting that India should be prepared for such denial, if that happens, he said, ''And we can't be ready overnight. That is the reason the semiconductor mission has gone in. ''By the time we realise our semiconductors, our own chips, India will be completely self-sufficient, not only in systems or subsystems, also on the technology as well as the basic core components, so that we can design and develop our systems, and produce those in numbers that nobody can choke the production,'' he said. Asked about a time frame for developing such basic conductors within India, Das said that development of this kind of core technology takes time, giving examples of the USA, Japan and Taiwan. ''We could have also done it at the component level, but more important is first to be self-sufficient in the basic systems,'' he said. ''We have realised the systems, we have realised subsystems and now we are in situations to realise the components. Could be in another five to 10 years, we should be fully ready with our own,'' Das said. Stating that denial is subjective, he said that 30 years back, when they made the first Agni missile with the test launch on May 22, 1989, the systems had been denied to India by those few countries possessing it.

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