PM'S ADDRESS AT THE DRDO AWARDS FUNCTION
Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave
away DRDO Awards on the occasion of National Technology Day, here
today. Following is the text of Prime Minister’s speech :-
It is a pleasure to be with all of you once again
at this annual event. It is entirely appropriate that we recognize
the achievements of scientists and technologists of DRDO on National
Technology Day. May 11 will always remind us - and the world –
of the quality and innovative calibre of our scientists and their
ability to deliver, even in the face of the most daunting odds.
We celebrate today the important contribution
of DRDO laboratories, their scientists, engineers and supporting
staff – and of all the associated industrial units - to projects
of critical strategic importance to our country. We acknowledge
their dedication and pay tribute to their work.
The nation has seen the advances made by them
over the last year in several key programmes. The operational
capability of the Prithvi variant needed by our services has been
successfully demonstrated.
The test launch early this year of the short-range
variant of the Agni ballistic missile was another landmark event.
Together with the success last year of the longer range Agni II
in its operational configuration, it takes India very close to
self-reliance in this strategic system.
The prestigious Indo-Russian supersonic cruise
missile Brahmos has drawn international notice. The successful
test flights of the Light Combat Aircraft, the induction into
the Air Force and Navy of Electronic Warfare systems, and the
satisfactory performance of the Pilot-less Target Aircraft, Lakshya,
are all reasons for pride.
Our newly acquired multi-role Sukhoi 30 aircraft
now have Indian avionics. I am happy to learn that the Multi Barrel
Rocket Launcher system, Pinaka, and the Battle Field Surveillance
Radar have acquitted themselves well in evaluations.
These are all remarkable achievements, but they
only provide a glimpse of your capabilities. More technologies
and products of critical importance remain to be developed, perfected
and inducted.
When I addressed you on this last year, I had
remarked that military doctrines and strategies change at a bewildering
pace in the modern era and that technologies have to respond imaginatively
to these changes. We have witnessed a hint of this in Afghanistan
recently. Countries can acquire the capability to conduct a war
abroad from within their borders, with minimal involvement of
their own ground forces. Military space systems can gather information
about distant battle-fields, transmit it in real time to command
centres and inflict damage to targets through remotely controlled
weaponry, without putting personnel at risk.
Our military and defence strategies have to respond
to such realities. Our technology developers also need to orient
their research in these directions.
The gruesome events of September 11 and their
aftermath demonstrated the unconventional techniques and weaponry
in the service of terrorism today. The terrorist today often uses
freely available commercial, off-the-shelf technologies for his
destructive purposes. There is a grave threat to civilisation
from non-state actors acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
Unfortunately, we, in India, are not strangers
to the various techniques used by terrorism. Only recently on
October 1 last year, we saw a storming of the Jammu & Kashmir
State Assembly with the manifest objective of wiping out the entire
democratically elected leadership of the State. On December 13,
an even more daring attempt targeted the entire national leadership
in our Parliament.
We heard with hope the much acclaimed speech
of January 12 of the President of Pakistan which promised a crackdown
on terrorists in Pakistan and an end to the export of terror to
India. Unfortunately, the measures which followed that speech
turned out to be largely cosmetic and not sustained. We see this
by the increased incidents of terrorist activities in Jammu &
Kashmir and by the acts of terrorism prompted by ISI in other
parts of our country. As the snow melts in the Himalayan mountain
and terrorist elements from the Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces seek
a new outlet for their activity, infiltration into Jammu &
Kashmir has seen a further increase. This has had direct consequences
for the violence in the State. In March and April this year, there
have been nearly 300 incidents each and 600 people have tragically
lost their lives to terrorism in these two months. Even in the
first 11 days of May, we have had 80 violent incidents with about
110 lives lost.
We are determined to cut through this vicious
circle of violence and to ensure that the forthcoming elections
to the Jammu & Kashmir State Assembly are not only free and
fair but also include every shade of public opinion that wishes
to be involved in the democratic process. We have seen crude threats
to the lives, families and properties of those who wish to resume
their participation in the democratic life of the State. Physical
threats or monetary inducements cannot be allowed to disrupt the
democratic election process. Their sponsors and the rest of the
world should be warned that we shall do everything that is necessary
to prevent violence or coercive measures from sabotaging the conduct
of elections in Jammu & Kashmir.
In anticipating and countering such terrorist
threats to our security, scientists and technologists also have
an important role. We need to constantly upgrade our technical
and human capability in a multi-disciplinary manner to meet this
situation.
I am happy that the Principal Scientific Advisor
to the Government of India has initiated a dialogue between civilian
and defence scientific establishments in the country to develop
new technologies and to adapt existing technologies to protect
potential targets of terrorism. I am sure that the laboratories
of DRDO will be important participants in this exercise.
The nation is aware of the severe constraints
of unfair technology denial regimes under which defence scientists
operate. We have in the past overcome these constraints with determination
and courage and we shall continue to do so. History has taught
us that India cannot depend on others to meet its security needs.
While the globalised economy of today promotes global inter-dependence
in virtually every area of human endeavour, self-reliance has
to remain the slogan for our national security and weapon systems.
It is, therefore, vital for all the major partners
in our security system – the Armed Forces, DRDO and the security
strategists – to channelise their joint efforts to build a strong,
modern and effective weapons technology and industry base for
this nation. This requires a dynamic real-time matrix in which
inputs on evolving military strategies and doctrines, battle-field
requirements, and cutting edge defence technologies interact,
enrich and reinforce each other. It is also important to recognise
the imperative need to ensure timely completion of projects since
slippage in schedules could increase vulnerability in our defence
system, putting human lives at greater risk.
Dr. Aatre has described the initiatives for human
resource development by DRDO. I am happy that innovative measures
are being contemplated to attract and retain young scientists
in our defence laboratories. The Government will consider all
possible measures to encourage this.
In conclusion, I extend my warm congratulations
to the recipients of the DRDO awards this year. I wish them even
greater success in their future endeavours".
