Government steps up military and space research with IITs

Enthused by the Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission, which hopes to land on the Moon’s south pole, the Indian government is seeking greater involvement of the country’s top educational institutions in India’s space programme, as well as stepping up collaboration on military-related research as part of the country’s plan to reduce dependence on military imports.

Increased involvement by the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the defence and space sectors will help boost the country's indigenous capabilities in those areas and contribute to research and development related to space science, space technology and space applications after the successful Chandrayaan-2 launch on 22 July, a week after an aborted first attempt, officials said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised this week that Chandrayaan-2 was “a fully indigenous mission”.

India’s Minister for Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ discussed the new military and space brief with the directors of all 23 IITs in mid-June, according to the online news magazine Print.

The minister announced that all eminent engineering institutes, along with IITs, would have to contribute towards the ‘Make in India’ plan for the defence sector and would form a core team with members from IITs and the defence and space sectors to harness the research capabilities of IITs and Indian Institutes of Information Technology.

IITs have been working with the Indian Space Research Organisation, but their role has so far been confined to research. They will now be expected to take up a more dynamic role in both the defence and space sectors by getting into the production side as part of the ‘Make in India’ programme, a government initiative to attract inward investment and build quality manufacturing infrastructure.

IITs will also work more directly with defence staff. “This will help them to know their [defence] requirements and work on them,” ministry officials said.

Indigenous production

As is constantly emphasised, one of the main aims of bringing IITs into defence and space research is to increase indigenous production.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a trusted source on arms research, India was the world’s largest importer of major arms, with 62% of India’s arms imports in 2013-17 sourced from Russia.

SIPRI has also previously highlighted India’s “ineffective” indigenous defence manufacturing and research and development base as a “serious weakness”.

Military research is mostly concentrated in the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which runs some 50 laboratories and research centres, but is seen by analysts as underperforming on research.

Although there is an awareness in the government and military circles, the academic path to indigenisation has so far remained largely unclear.

But last year a course on ‘Overview of Defence Technologies’ was launched at IIT Madras in Chennai as an elective. Since then, more than 100 PhD, masters and undergraduate students across disciplines have enlisted in the course each semester. Students attend defence expos, visit Indian Navy ships and shipyards, and the Officers Training Academy at Chennai and communicate with military officers, scientists and industry experts.

DRDO and IIT Delhi have set up a Joint Advanced Technology Centre at IIT Delhi to facilitate and undertake directed basic and applied research in areas of DRDO focus.

Other centres have been established in top institutions including IIT Bombay and Jadavpur University in Kolkata. Advanced technologies developed in these centres will be “used in the development of futuristic defence systems”, according to official pronouncements.

Space Technology Cells

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also set up Space Technology Cells at premier institutions, including the IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru; and a joint research programme with Savitribai Phule Pune University to conduct specialised research in space technologies and applications.

IIT Roorkee in northern Uttarakhand province has tied up with ISRO and signed a memorandum of understanding to set up the ISRO-IITR Space Technology Cell at Roorkee for advanced research related to technological and programmatic requirements of the Indian space programme using the existing infrastructure of the two organisations.

The Space Technology Cell will comprise faculty members, visiting scientists and experts, research personnel, technical, administrative and support staff.