Defence body to hire contract scientists

New Delhi: Hit by an exodus of top scientists, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is moving to get its act together.

The Defence Ministry has permitted it to hire scientists on contract basis. This may help the organisation in completing many of its projects.

The DRDO has been hit by a talent crunch with a large number of scientists leaving for plum packages in the corporate world.

"The ministry has given the green signal to contractual appointments so that bright scientists can be hired," Chief Controller (Research and Development) W. Selvamurthy said.

Such scientists will be paid a fixed remuneration based on the quality of their work and their experience.

A number of DRDO projects have been plagued by cost and time overruns, forcing the armed forces to resort to the import route.

Among the major projects that have suffered huge time and cost overruns are the development of the Arjun main battle tank (MBT) and the Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA).

The DRDO has, however, been instrumental in developing a series of tactical and strategic missile systems like the Prithvi and the Agni, some of which have been inducted into the armed forces.

The DRDO has lost around 1,100 scientists between 2003 and 2007 - an average of one person leaving the body every two days.

Allowances

Selvamurthy said the defence ministry has also agreed to the DRDO's demand for enhancing the professional update allowance for its scientists.

"Earlier, everyone used to get around Rs5,000 per annum as professional update allowance for becoming a member of a scientific society or subscribing to magazines. But now the ministry has accepted a differential professional update allowance based on seniority," Selvamurthy said.

The scientists will be getting the allowance in three categories of Rs10,000, Rs20,000 and Rs30,000 based on their experience and rank.

The attrition rate in DRDO, which has 7,000 scientists, is about 6.3 per cent. And what is worsening the situation is that the organisation is able to fill up only 60-70 per cent of its vacancies.

The DRDO scientists are in great demand in the private sector and find jobs in areas like aeronautics, armaments, combat vehicles, electronics, instrumentation engineering systems, missiles, materials, naval systems, advance computing, simulation and life sciences.

In a bid to check the exodus, DRDO has sought financial incentives for scientists who obtain patents and whose research work gets published in high-profile journals.

"Annually DRDO scientists get around 50-60 patents. We are hopeful that the demand will be granted," Selvamurthy said.