Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation five Young Scientists Laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Bengaluru on January 2. He urged the DRDO to rethink and reshape itself to play a significant role in the 21st century with youth power and help countries suffering from terrorism.

“This is a decade which will decide what will be the strength of India and where we will be on the world map. This decade is also all about youth power, young innovators, especially those who were either born in the 21st century or grew young in this century,” he said.

What is the purpose of these labs?

DRDO Young Scientist Laboratories (DYSLs) are located in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Scientists below the age of 35 get priority to contribute for research and development. Each lab will work on a key advanced technology of importance to the development of futuristic defence systems such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technologies, cognitive technologies, asymmetric technologies and smart materials.

The inspiration to start such laboratories came from the PM on the occasion of a DRDO award function held on August 24, 2014.

Speaking about the idea behind DYSLs, the PM said the youth have immense capacity, dreams, aspirations and ability to take risks. He said the government is ready to incur losses due to the trial and error at these labs as something creative would come out from them.

The establishment of the five DYSLs lays down the foundation for research and development of futuristic technologies. It will be a big leap forward for DRDO from the goal of making India self-reliant to future ready in defence technologies.

Research in the area of rapidly evolving AI will be carried out in Bengaluru.

The all-important area of quantum technology will be based out of IIT Bombay.

The future is dependent on cognitive technologies and IIT Madras will house the lab embarking in this area of research.

New and futuristic area of asymmetric technologies, which will change the way wars are fought, will be based out of Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

Research in the critical area of smart materials and their applications will be based out of Hyderabad.

DRDO

DRDO is the research and development wing of the defence ministry. Its vision is to empower India with cutting-edge defence technologies and a mission to achieve self-reliance in critical defence technologies and systems, while equipping our armed forces with state-of-the-art weapon systems and equipment in accordance with the requirements laid down by the three services.

DRDO was formed in 1958 from the amalgamation of the then already functioning Technical Development Establishment of the Indian Army and the Directorate of Technical Development & Production with the Defence Science Organisation. DRDO was then a small organisation with 10 establishments or laboratories. Over the years, it has grown multi-directionally in terms of the variety of subject disciplines, number of laboratories, achievements and stature.

Today, DRDO is a network of more than 50 laboratories that are deeply engaged in developing defence technologies covering various disciplines such as aeronautics, armaments, electronics, combat vehicles, engineering systems, instrumentation, missiles, advanced computing and simulation, special materials, naval systems, life sciences, training, information systems and agriculture. Several major projects for the development of missiles, armaments, light combat aircrafts, radars, electronic warfare systems etc are on hand and significant achievements have already been made in several such technologies.

DRDO’s pursuit of self-reliance and successful indigenous development and production of strategic systems and platforms such as Agni and Prithvi series of missiles, Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, multi-barrel rocket launcher Pinaka, air defence system Akash, etc have given a quantum jump to India’s military might, generating effective deterrence and providing crucial leverage.

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