Govt splits DRDO chief, scientific advisor posts

NEW DELHI: Nearly four months after sacking Avinash Chander, the Modi government on Thursday appointed radar specialist Selvin Christopher and missile scientist GS Reddy as the DRDO chief and Scientific Advisor to the defence minister, respectively.

Like his predecessors, Avinash Chander, who was sacked in January, held the two posts. But the government concluded that it was erroneous to appoint a scientist to be an adviser as well as head the research development body and decided to bifurcate the post.

Christopher — who heads the Bengaluru- based Centre for Airborne Systems and the project to develop airborne early warning and control systems — will be the secretary, department of defence research and development, as well as director general of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).

The new scientific adviser to defence minister, GS Reddy, is the director of the Hyderabadbased Research Centre Imarat (RCI), the missile avionics hub of DRDO that is considered the brainchild of former president APJ Abdul Kalam.

After Chander’s removal, defence minister Manohar Parrikar, 59, indicated that he did not want a senior position to be held by a scientist on contract and wanted to “introduce in the scientific world, a slightly younger generation”. He kept his word. Parrikar’s scientific adviser is just 51, eight years younger than the minister while Christopher is in his late fifties.

Christopher faces the challenging task of revitalising the DRDO that has slipped on deadlines and has even come under fire from a parliamentary panel recently for shoddy research, inordinate delays, corruption and its fancy for reverse engineering.