Wednesday, February 9, 2011

20 Top Indian Defense Scientists Quit Their Jobs


At least 20 top Indian defense scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) have quit their jobs in the last six months reportedly because of lack of research freedom and inadequate funding.

DRDO is an Indian agency responsible for the development of technology for use by its military. It has a network of 52 laboratories which are developing defence technologies covering various fields, like aeronautics, armaments, electronic and computer sciences, human resource development, life sciences, materials, missiles, combat vehicles development and naval research and development.
According to estimates it has more than 5,000 scientists and about 25,000 other scientific, technical and supporting personnel.
The Times of India reported on Sunday that 20 top scientists of the DRDO have left the organization since July and have forayed into IT sector.
Vijaykumar Saraswath, the scientific adviser to Indian Defense Minister A. K. Antony, was quoted as saying:
“In the last six months, I have signed about 20 resignations of top scientists. We are losing scientists from our labs and IT sector is picking them up. There were no such en masse resignations in the last two years. We need to have good Human Resource policies, which are now in place. A large number of young NRI science graduates are approaching Defense Research and Development Organization for work. There are also a lot of youngsters from our own universities who have shown interest in pursuing research. We are looking forward to recruiting youngsters.”
The situation has arisen even after incentives were promised by defence ministerA K Antony in 2008 when 285 scientists resigned over the span of three years.

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