DRDO ensured funding for IIT Chennai drone programme never comes to us - Lt Gen Shankar (Retd) 

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We should share this on Twitter and tag concerned authorities. Crowd funding is a viable option 👍

Pls someone show this interview to our Defence Minister and Prime Minister and if Finance Minister understands it, then to her also

Egoistic people as head of institutions is really a curse for this country.

People buy small homes cost more than 10cr in South Bombay, and the indigenous technology who have mind boggling potential is not getting 10cr of funding from government. It's a shame.

That's why US has the model of setting up competing organizations even in the same field eg it funds both Lockheed Martin and Boeing for any new prototype. In India we have only one organization DRDO for everything and if it refuses to perform, we are stuck. Everyone in this country have vested interest, no one is thinking about the country. Public sector and Bureaucracy is the worst.

We couldn't find 10 crores for a promising drone program. Shame on us.

This is how india functions .. they trust the few failed and leave the large success pool behind .

Every day our indian media publishes tens and thousands of articles about "indian innovation"indian students found this , indians students found that. But I always wondered where these researches are going and now i know indians talk too much before success while chinses and Americans talk after work

Technology doesn't reside in DRDO. Appreciate your words Sir.

I wish that GoI is genuinely hearing the concern and takes it towards addressing the issue.

One of the best interviews ever recorded in recent time, why India is lacking so much in the technology. Please ask Shekar Gupta sir to make a cut the clutter about this. Hope this goes viral.

I hope ratan tata sir watch this interview and decided to fund his program for 10 crores or maybe more. It is high time that TATA should enter the defense sector.

Shekar sir needs to do a cut the clutter on this... He has already covered on the war in Azerbaijan and the importance of drone... it deserves to be seen by a larger audience

This is the real journalism's... Loved this from the entire lot.... Good work and special thanks to #theprint... And also let us know if we can do funding from our end.

It's IIT Madras and not IIT Chennai, please correct the title. He is brutally honest, he exposes the reality of Atmanirbhar Bharat!

Now that print made a video on this.. you could have asked the general to setup an account and the print can give the details of the account in the video, description and comments.. crowd funding nowadays is very popular.. even if people spare 10rs India is a big country.. and any help is help none the less

Strange to know that with a funding of 10 crores it is possible to build HALE type of drone and yet, India failed to develop any respectable drone so far. This is sad and needs urgent attention of Defense Minister and of course, the PM.

Most of the junior and middle level tenured posts in DRDO and other weapons research institutions should be replaced by contract based jobs for 5 or 10 or 15 years. Then new talent can be constantly introduced while older people who are no longer contributing can be cycled out. Under the current model it is mostly seen as a stable government job where you go and sign an attendance register every working day and get a salary at month-end and a pension after retirement. They should be made to do without the job certainty and their continuation in positions should be based on meeting milestones. Otherwise DRDO will continue to a drag on the country's resources without contributing much to technological self sufficiency in weapon systems of the country.

This makes me sad. If I had 10 crores, I would have given it all to this team. Risks must be taken to reap good return.

People this the real state of affair about 30 years ago with cellphone technology at IIT. There was some minor money put into it and big rewards but could not commercialize a successful product . Drdo sponsoring IIT model was failure even then. It’s great that you are coming out and speaking about UAV which is a simple technology . A $1000 UAV on amazon will do more now and it’s not advanced technology . Just see how NASA has become irrelevant now. Hope india can get the young brains to work on such projects and NOT let it abroad either as IP or As Human Resources.

The general is absolutely blunt... Typical fauji... I just love it..

I think they were pressurised to take this video down yesterday.. As this is a re-upload.. Yesterday the title of the video was -"Technology does not reside in DRDO".. Then this has been reuploaded with a new title..

Babudom is curse for India. Demolish these civil services chaps.

Ahh..... I was desperate for some honest interview in defence manufacturing and procurement for a long time

Excellent episode. Investing in technology in-house is better than buying it from outside.

I guess if they just call up Nitin Gadkari and ask for the funding, I guess he would be able to get them funding asap. 😄

That's govt hypocrisy......I could see pain in Lt general words.... really painful

Well done to ThePrint for highlighting this situation. Keep up the good work.

10Cr for development!? That's less than 1 temple

Any possibility for crowd funding this project.

Great job, The Print is the only source of sensible journalism.

Lt Gen Ravi Shankar Sir. Thank you for your service and we swear we the people will support you for your cause. Do start a crowd funding please. Also, The Print is hitting the ball out of the park! I am amazed how The Print is finding lesser known people to give us inside knowledge. Makes a huge difference in hearing from the man himself. You guys and Wion are giving the public a much needed breather from all the noise.

Thought provoking Discussion. IITs should start crowdfunding.

We can crowd fund this Drone Project.

Extremely shortsighted of DRDO to block funding for this program.

Good that I did meditation before watching this! I am still furious seeing how INDIA'S potential is being wasted because of red tapism!! TERRIBLE!!!

We could crowd fund the project.

lets start a petition and crowd funding

Let's raise public funding for this project.

The Print/Snehesh Alex Philip: edit fyi: IIT-Madras is a fairly well-renowned university, especially for undergraduate education, located in Guindy, a suburb of Chennai.

20 years in the future, a movie will be made about this, similar to Suriya's "Aakasam nee haddu ra"

We iits get no jobs only projects... That is y there is no action on these projects from our side... A student from IITgn

Its so strange when PM Modi yesterday summoned IITs in PanIIT forum to take the lead to make India atmanirbhar.

Where is 'make in india' spirit when we need it the most ?

Gutted to hear the vast gap between the tall claims we make and the real ground reality.

Jai Hind,,, Hail our India always,,, God is with our India and we the 130 crores of citizens are standing with India and our defence forces

many DRDO and HAL engineers are diploma holders. we need masters and doctorates to handle modern stuff

Hope print investigates this and digs up more on this!

*IITK Rocks!* DRDO has also funded countless projects in IITK's aero & o/ depts including biochem since long past. Also, it is not only that IITK has an airstrip but also has the crucial massive wind tunnels for testing..

Hi Print... If there is a way we can fund this program as crowd funding, please let us know.

Video should be renamed and marketed as " IIT has world class drones. But non one ready to invest." for better reach Also any way of crowd funding. Pls share

Can The Print take the initiative to setup a crowd funding initiative..I am prepared to add my contribution to it...imagine about 1000 people putting in a Lakh or two each..that will get them to 10 Cr easily

Oh God it is unbelievable. IIT Chennai and Kanpur drone programme is stuck owing to finding problem for as little as Rs 10 crore. These are like chillar for our high society celebs traveling to Dubai or a Maldives. I am a man of small means but please make it as part of the crowd funding program. I will certainly contribute and advertise it to friends and colleagues to donate liberally. Thank you Print for bringing this up. At the same time, I am a bit petrified such programs are usually done in secrecy but since this is now an open source intelligence, I hope the departments of IITs are not compromised. I am glad it is headed by a retired army General. Jai Hind.

10:30 IIT Madras and IIT Chennai is the same thing 😂

If simply put UAV are tiny and makeshift satellites. Very good episode. We need to ensure funding for this drone program and run a parallel drone program decoupled from DRDO. IITs, IISc host capable students who can pull this work to success. IIT Madras has excellent work culture.

Print should set up a account and crowd funding can be done

10 crore is very little amount even a crowd funding can do it. But this is India for gaushala you can get this amount in 1 day.

Came across this ..sitting on ame floor as his office and watching this

After hearing this i am like wtf is our system upto.

DRDO should fund the drone project. Government should act shifly in tapping, encourage and promote the young engineers and scientists to develop technology. This will save our revenue from buying foreign arms and prevent middleman commissions etc.

Finally someone spoke non chalantly about what's ailing India and its innovators.

Shekhar sir pls do an episode, respected gen deserves a wider audience

This video should get way more views than it deserves. Also national leadership should be informed of this interview !!!

Everyone pl tweet and share this as much as you can on all platforms....we brag about everything but this is the reality....aawaz guuzni chaahiya on all social media platforms

Good and need full interview. It looks like the general has pursued the project even after his retirement with a spirit of a teenager with a strong sense of nativity. Congratulation s sir. Also thanks for letting us know about a local company making engines for UAVs

There are about 150 drone startups in India these guys are working on areas where a lot of people are working you can not fund everyone, there are a few companies(startups) from Bangalore who are working with armed forces on drones and loitering ammunition, this interaction is a grossly simplistic one, there is a systemic problem in the country no doubt but we need to make sure that there is no overlapping of efforts as well.

Would recommend you approach Shri Ratan Tata for the funding. Sure he would like to help.

Invest in technology, I think that's most crucial take away from this very interesting conversation.

Tell GoI or DRDO your using UAV for monitoring cows.. you will get more than enough funds. or call if it "pushpaka viman"

Very important information Keep it up sir☺

Please raise fundraisers through entrepreneurs

As always Snahesh is excellent.

Since Drones are having versatile uses in civil and defence, DST( Dept of Scence and Technology should sanction required funds for this project.The required exclusive air strip for Drones test flights to be set up in Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh, which is close to Bangalore Air Port.Large chunks of arid and dry lands are available surrounding Hindupur town.

I have started a twitter thread with #droneforindia for this. It would be great if people could spread it.

Editorial teams at Print , please set up a special desk for following up and investigating on all important issues on both civilian and military concerning the nation and its strategic issues. The TV channel NEWSX is allocating a specific slot for key issues of national importance like start ups, MSMEs etc. Since your channel is very prestigious and expected to have a big impression , your highlighting critical programs can nd will shake the govt into taking notice and acting on them.

I have an openion. Now the government look to DRDO for defences technology. We should bring these start-ups and institutions under one umbrella and fund both DRDO and start-ups for new technology and prototypes as required by armed forces like US model of competing agency under make in India initiative.

DRDO should be scrapped and such people should be given proper funding

"Technology doesn't reside in DRDO" Such a brutal truth

Kudos to you General. As a young boys we would fly aeromodels made of balsa wood etc. Now, hearing all about these drones its so exciting. Keep up the good work. Sir, try the TAAL runway at HOSUR for trials.

He is speaking the truth, the RnD in a public undertaking like DRDO, ISRO, HAL is living in the 20th century moving at a snail's pace. Plus the egoistic problem runs so deep in these organizations that they don't fund smaller startups. One can say self-reliant India all day long, but if some entrepreneur in a capital intensive sector like aerospace, the defense isn't given a good incubator and funding, I bet we would still be buying Russian and US weapons even after 10-15 years.

Sir how come you cant borrow 4m banks as a Start Up ? This is a vital area of work. I feel you need to take this up with the PM . I think there is hope and prospect to bloom.Best Wishes. 07 12 2020

This interview should be on tv/on air until this catch attention of concerned persons.. Who can bring the system to right track

We should crowd fund this project....there should be a system for these genius people to raise funds in the priliminary stage from people.......Indian people are much more smart, kind and enthusiastic about these kind of projects

UMS Engineering in Coimbatore makes both single Piston as well as Radial engines which are used in UAVs. But I am amazed Lt Gen P. Ravi Shankar saying the IMU ( Flight Controller) cannot be made in India. The Sensors and Processors used in most IMU are commodity off the Shelf components like ARM Processors from ST / Qualcomm and Gyro / Accelerometers from Honeywell. Indian Designers can design such Flight controller and write Firmware / Flight Planner in India itself. Same goes for C2 - Command and Controller / Telemetry which could be made locally by BEL etc. The main bottleneck would be the reconnaissance payload like IR / Multi spectral sensors ( FLIR etc) which are mostly in "Import Restrictions" of US and other countries and India will have to solve that. I am amazed that at 19:15 Lt Gen says that "We will use next Gen Digital Technology and cheap Cameras" .... Cheap cameras with visual spectrum Sensors cannot replace the highly sensitive IR spectrum sensors ( few even need active cooling with Nitrogen to give low noise output) . All in all, India's lagging in Drone technology innovation has the same genesis - BIG Corporate sabotaging any possible innovation from SME/Colleges so that they can act as "Brokers" of western companies and cost nations 10-100 times more for something which could have been Designed and Made in India.

Congratulations to print for this very informative vedio.

IIT Chennai can keep the IP get royalty and have startup companies commercialising various products including drones similar to what Oxford and Cambridge universities have done, Astra Zenica vaccine is licensed the same way by Oxford university.

As our drdo chief always makes it clear that India has become really strong in area of missile technololgy, radars, sonars, electronic warfare systems, communications and guns. We can make great nuclear aubmarines. India is neck deep in building 5.5 generation fighter jet. Tejas our 4.5 generation jet will be precured by indian airforce with a deal worth over 4.5 billion dollars at aero india 2021. Wingman drones swarm drones unmanned combat ariel vehicles are all projects that are being developed on a mission basis. Drdo has already developed high powered micro wave and laser weapons. One such weapon wss deployed during trumps visit to India. Drdo has developed Anti drone systems that can nutralise swarm drones. During republic day parade this year drdo deployed this anti drone system. Modi came to power. He asked drdo to create young scientists laboratories where all scientists will be below age of 35. Drdo established 5 young scientist laboratory working in really advanced futuristic technologies namely cognitive technologies, asymmetric technologies, quantum technologies, artificial intelligence and smart materials. It's effect was seen almost immediately. Last year drdo shocked the world by sucesfully demonstrating quantum communication. The work being done at DRDO will be used to enable start-ups and SMEs in the domain of quantum information technologies. On army day this year India showcased to the workd its swarm drone technology. These drones are all self aware. one drone does not follow the other drone. each drone have the ability to take their own decisions based on threat. It uses adaptive artificial intelligence, edge computing, network centric approach, satellite based technologies, remote sensing many advance sensors image processing etc really complex stuff thar even I cannot explain. Armed forces will never show true capabilities of such state of the art disruptive ai based technologies. .. Also this year idea forge an Indian company won the contract to supply its swift dtones to indian armed forces. This drone is just marvel of technology. Such a tiny drone with very good endurance and equipped with state of the art surveillance gathering capabilities. Very smart artificial intelligence is built into this drone. We will not know it's true capabilities due to security reasons. The ceo of idea forge is from one of indian institute of technology. He built his first drone when he was doing his engeering. Infosys has invested heavily in idea forge. Like the Ceo says this drone is built like a bird and tested like a tank. These chiense drones cannot compete in any way shape or form with swift drone built by idea forge. Idea forge beat many foreign drone companies from america Israel to win this contract. It out performed all of them. Another indian company called addverb technologies does factory and wearhouse automation using ai for many companies. Their clients include giants like Coca cola Pepsi flipkart amazon etc. This company basically makes robots from robots. Last week isro has sucessfully demonstrated free space quantum communication.. The Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology underpins Quantum Communication technology that ensures unconditional data security by virtue of the principles of quantum mechanics, which is not possible with the conventional encryption systems. The conventional cryptosystems used for data-encryption rely on the complexity of mathematical algorithms, whereas the security offered by quantum communication is based on the laws of Physics. Therefore, quantum cryptography is considered as ‘future-proof’, since no future advancements in the computational power can break quantum-cryptosystem. The experiment is a major breakthrough towards ISRO’s goal of demonstrating Satellite Based Quantum Communication (SBQC), So india is not only prepared for the present but also the future.

Spreading this video... so that this project gets funding... hope the government listens.... we need to fund these projects for greater good of the country... Jai Hind... wish u good luck

Sir I hope we don’t disclose too much information in such interviews at the same time such interviews are necessary for taking corrective measures

So far as R&D is concerned, there is a continuing process and requires constant cyclical work -- its a cat-and-mouse game. When we hire IAS cadre who do not (or don't want) to understand the process involved, you get chronically stalled, always out-of-date tech supposedly protecting our country and serving the troops. The people administering these programs who have to specialize and not apply their mai-baap thinking to problems this complicated!

In this re-upload, not only is the title changed but also the thumb nail. An inclusion of 'only' in the sentence. Wonder what could be the reason.

Very strange. This is very serious issue. Govt must invest in new tech without hesitation.

IITs,NITs need to be complete among themselves for technological advancements. We have the best minds in our country but they need guidance. We just can't depend on DRDO for everything. Our all best minds are not only at DRDO.

By the way, I had the opportunity of see the Rustom-I drones up close at Taneja Airspace , a Private facility in Hosur near Bangalore's Electronic City. That 'Drone" is a blatant copy of "Long EZ" Kit plane designed by one of most iconic Plane designer Burt Rutan (also responsible for design of Virgin Galactic's Spaceship One), using off the shelf Engine and Servos for control surface. There was nothing "Industrial" , leave "Mil - Grade" to be seen in it. Small SMEs and even Colleges in Turkey , Vietnam and Brazil are fabricating much more professional looking Drones than these White Elephants

Excellent👌

Mann Ki Baat, " Atmanirbhar Bharat".

My request to the GOI is to consider funding this project through IITs for at least 50 crs . And encourage them . When GOI can spend a lot more for the same type of project through other Govt departments. This project may please funded in Interest of the Nation.

Programs like this uncover inefficiencies in society and improve overall efficiencies. Snehesh, thanks for the push on reporting on drone capabilities. (Aside, your microphone has too much echo, may be the position has to be changed.)

Hey print forward this info to PM , write a open letter. DRDO can't be the only technology provider