The surprise termination of Avinash Chander as the head of the Defence Research and Development Organisation is being blamed on multiple factors like his inability to toe the line on the ‘Make in India’ campaign but another major factor may have been the government’s desire to revamp the organisation and put younger faces in charge of an organisation that is accused of holding on to scientists well beyond its requirement.

Chander, an alumunus of IIT-Delhi where he did his graduation in Electrical Engineering, and JNTU where he did his MS in Spatial Information Technology, is credited as being the person who led the design and development of the Agni series of ballistic missiles.

Avinash Chander DRDO Chief

Having joined the DRDO in 1972 after his graduation, the organisation credits him with having “created the infrastructure, industry base, production lines, and integration facilities to produce different classes of Agni missiles”. The DRDO credited his research in inertial navigation and guidance systems “for enabling the utilisation of solid propulsion”, which is said to be the backbone of the long-range missile system, and also with laying the technology roadmap for Missile Complex Laboratories.

After his appointment, Chander had said that his first priority was to ensure that India could react quickly to a nuclear strike in minutes, and had promised the latest versions of the Agni missile, with a range of over 6,000 kilometres would be inducted in the armed forces’ arsenal by 2015.

While a Telegraph report today hinted that Chander may have been shown the door on account of the DRDO’s failure to fall in line with the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ campaign to boost manufacturing in the country, the scientist in the past had said that he supported the participation of private industry in defence equipment manufacturing and believed allowing greater FDI would bring in better technologies.

In an interview to the Indian Express in 2014, Chander had said,”Our aim is that as Make in India enhances further, funding should come from private industry for research and development. So we will look at partnerships.”

The former DRDO chief may have run afoul of the government on account of the accusation that the country’s top defence equipment research organisation was stymieing talent due to a rigid hierarchy that allowed some scientists to keep getting extensions.
Chander was the Chief Controller of Missiles and Strategic Systems, and given an extension at age 62, when he was appointed as the Director General of the DRDO, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary Department of Defence R&D.

News Source: FirstPost.com