The first meeting of newly constituted Design & Development Management Board (DDMB) by the Government to strengthen design and development in aerospace and promote self-reliance in the critical areas of India’s defence preparedness was held recentlyat the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Corporate Office in Bengaluru. The Board comprises key members of India’s premier defence organisations involved in research, production and manufacturing activities. “We need to have clear road map to take on the challenges in defence sector as issues concerned range from basic and applied research, involvement of academia, production, spotting and retaining talent”, said Chairman of DDMB, Dr R.K. Tyagi who is also Chairman of HAL. Dr K. Tamilmani, DG (Aeronautics), Dr C.P. Ramanarayanan, Director, GTRE, Dr Ajit Kalghatgi, Director (R&D, BEL), Dr Shyam Shetty, Director, NAL, P. Srikumar, Director, ADE and T. Suvarna Raju, Director, Design and Development of HAL (who is Member Secretary of the Board) were present on the occasion.

The meeting brain-stormed on how to build a strong foundation for R&D by synergising the core competency of all the organizations involved, creating conducive environment for research and support business academia collaboration. The meeting also felt that all the concerned organisations must share the lessons learnt from the past programmes and make combined efforts to ensure success of future programmes with thrust on indigenisation. Acquiring of modern technology and measures to be taken to retain quality manpower were also discussed.

The forum would act as a platform for stimulating initiatives and suggest policy interventions for bringing inclusive growth. The DDMB members will deliberate at length most of these issues in their future meetings and the recommendations will be communicated to the stakeholders.