DRDO and IITs entering to a most deadly collaboration of sorts for advanced defence-related aerospace research

In a bid to kick-start advanced defence-related aerospace research and development in India’s top educational institutes, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) would be spending around Rs 400 crore.

According to Economic Times, the DRDO will splurge the amount to get the program started in IIT Bombay and IIT Madras.

This is one of its kind partnerships between DRDO and IITs has been signed under the umbrella of PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ program.
According to top-level sources aware of the development, a tripartite MoU, has been signed recently between the DRDO and the two IITs, but but is yet to get an approval from the Ministry of Defence.

The approval is expected to come in a couple of months after which DRDO will provide Rs 180 crore each to IIT Madras and IIT Bombay for research. The other chunk of the funding-- Rs 50-60 crore- will go for the infrastructure development of IIT Bombay as it’ll be the administrative headquarter for the new center for Propulsion Technology.

IIT Madras’s project in-charge and professor of aerospace engineering there, SR Chakravarthy has said, "This is one of the biggest investments by the government into academic research and cuts to the root of the Make in India campaign."

As per the fresh media reports, the organization initiated a renovation program under the leadership of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and DRDO chief which undergone a lot many hitches from CAG.

Krishnan Balasubramaniam, dean of industrial research at IIT Madras has said that while DRDO will be the primary funding agency now, other industries could join in later.

Going forward, DRDO could identify private partners from the industry who can work with research faculty at IIT on technology development. While IIT Madras and IIT Bombay will be the main nodal centers, three other IITs — Kharagpur, Guwahati and Bhubaneshwar, along with NIT Surat will be associates in the research to be undertaken.

Three-four small groups of professors from these associate institutes will pick up projects and work with IIT Madras and Bombay faculty members. The ideation for the new Centre for Propulsion Technology has been going on for the past year and a half, mostly taking final shape in forms of approvals early this year, said Chakravarthy.

At IIT Madras, this centre has 45 faculties across eight departments participating in the project, while at IIT Bombay, 25 faculties across departments will participate in the high-end aerospace technology research being conducted for the first time in the country.

"This kind of a research centre will enable us to get the design basis. We can design very high end machinery for which design basis will not be available anywhere else in the world," said Chakravarthy.

Four streams have been identified for research including hypersonics which will focus towards technology for developing advanced version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The missile travels at the speed of Mach 2.8 to 3.0. IIT is targeting BrahMos version that could travel at speed of Mach 6.5 and versions that could travel at Mach 12 and Mach 13.

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