IITs to Contribute to Defence & Space Sectors in Government’s Make in India Program

Indian Institute of Technology, IITs may soon contribute to defence and space sectors in Central Government’s Make in India initiative. In a meeting conducted on June 14 by HRD Ministry with directors of IITs, it has been conveyed that the educational institutes will help the government to take defence and space sectors of the country to the next level.

As per news report, in the meeting, it was directed that the ministry wants a core team with members from IITs, the defence and space sectors to be constituted to leverage the expertise of these IITs and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).

While talking to a news website, a senior ministry official said, “IITs and IIITs are government-funded institutions, hence it is expected that they play an active role in nation building.” The idea is to promote indigenous defence and space capabilities as a part of the Make in India program. Further, he added that “In his first meeting with the IITs, the HRD minister gave a brief to these institutions to work for defence and space sectors directly. A plan will be finalised by all the institutions on how they want to go about executing the idea.”

Since long, Central Government has been trying to construct and manufacture high technology equipment like fighter planes to naval ships under the Make in India program but never succeeded. With this new initiative, the idea is expected to take off and the defence equipment that was imported earlier will now be manufactured here, helping in cutting the cost as well.

Till now, IITs were working with the research wing of Ministry of Defence and ISRO, now they will directly work with defence personnel. This will help them to understand their demands and requirements and work on it.

IIT Delhi Director V Ramagopal Rao while sharing his thoughts to the news website said, “We already have a collaboration with DRDO and we have been working on a lot of defence research projects along with them, but that is just the research part of the defence. If we are required to work directly with the army, navy and air force, the kind of role that we play will be different. We will have to understand their requirements and work accordingly to provide solutions for them.”

Source: ToI

Image Courtesy: NewsNation