Secretary Department of Defence R&D & Chairman Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Dr G Satheesh Reddy launched Aazadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav at DRDO Bhawan on March 12, 2021. Directors General, DRDO scientists and other officers attended the event virtually from all major centres including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Tejpur and Visakhapatnam.

Aazadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav has been organised to commemorate 75 years of India’s independence and will be celebrated for 75 weeks starting from March 12, 2021 with various themes. Efforts of DRDO will primarily focus on the theme ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ and the announcements made will be in the direction of realizing that vision. DRDO will celebrate the Mahotsav throughout the 75 weeks by conducting various activities in the direction of nation building, achieving self reliance, encouraging scientific innovations, developing human resources and host of other related topics.

During the Mahotsav, DRDO will work with renewed energy to accomplish the goals set by Secretary Department of Defence R&D & Chairman DRDO under the vision of the Prime Minister. Chairman DRDO called upon DRDO fraternity to put special efforts to further support the industry and academia. DRDO will work along with them to achieve the goals of Mahotsav in various ways.

DRDO plans to enhance handholding of startups through incubation centres for technology development. Technology proposals from various industries will be processed under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme in larger numbers. Number of Licensing Agreements for Transfer of Technologies (LAToTs) will be increased to greater than 100. ToT to local industry for potable water in North Eastern Regions, Interactions/visits by DRDO scientists to various industries, filing of patents and reaching out to foreign countries to promote export of DRDO products have also been planned in a bigger way over the entire duration of the Mahotsav.

In order to promote greater collaboration with the academia, wide variety of  activities have been planned such as providing new challenges to academic institutes, increasing internship to students and providing apprenticeships to students in DRDO laboratories/centres. Besides, PhD students will be enrolled in DRDO laboratories on various defence related topics. More importance will be given to publication of scientific research papers and defence related articles in regional languages. Organising of courses and seminars on defence related areas in Universities/Institutions has also been planned on a larger scale. For encouraging skill development, many Certificate courses have been planned for students in advanced futuristic technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security.

In addition to these, special activities like exhibitions, short films, documentaries, carrying out plantations on a large scale, have been planned.

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