VK Saraswat, former DRDO director-general, at IIT-Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Aspiring techies studying in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna, have got the chance of gaining invaluable experience through a prestigious research project of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

The tech cradle will be one of the educational institutions in eastern India to create an advanced technology centre under the guidance of Jadavpur University, Calcutta, which has tied up with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the project.

Delivering the fifth foundation day lecture of IIT-Patna, V.K. Saraswat, the former DRDO director-general and scientific adviser to the defence minister, said: “Based on the performance of IIT-Patna, particularly that of its students and teachers, the institute will be included with other educational institutions of eastern India for a common research project with Jadavpur University being its mentor institution.” Some of the educational institutions, which are part of the DRDO projects, are IIT-Guwahati and IIT-Kharagpur.

Sources said the collaboration would focus on research keeping in mind the defence requirements of the country. At present, the DRDO has similar projects with IIT-Madras, which focus on defence materials manufacturing, software development and nano materials.

Saraswat said India’s defence production has gone up in the past decade. “The country has become self-reliant in defence production but we still have to work more. We are producing and designing our own tanks and aircraft, reducing our dependence on other countries.” The missile import content is 15 per cent, implying India’s dependence on 15 per cent imported materials for missile production. The import content for tanks and aircraft is 30 per cent. Steps will be taken in production of modern weapons comparable to developed countries.

Praising former President of India and eminent scientist APJ Abdul Kalam, Saraswat said: “Till 1980, the DRDO work was not tangible but after Kalam took over the reins of DRDO, it got a vision. He had equal respect for students and professors and it is due to his contribution that India’s defence production has gone up.” The former DRDO chief also spoke on working more on cyber security, as cyber terrorism has become a potential threat to the country’s progress.