Re: Quality of Manpower in DRDO and other Indian Defence Organizations
p2p, everything you have stated is a leadership and/or workforce issue. When the organization is rich enough to hire the best India has to offer, this will not be an issue. Currently DRDO has to figure out what to do with the $2billion annual budget. Even considering PPP, that is seriously lame for a country which has immense gaps in its defense needs. Even considering PPP, DRDO's historical cumulative budget does not even compare with the budget allocation of a single fighter program of the US.
The departments that have done well are the ones which were of utmost strategic importance and which had the maximum capital infusion - namely the IGMP and the BMD.
Firstly, there is no such thing as "best to offer." You never know what the person is going to offer unless the person has had experience. Therefore, all the IIT and NIT grads are useless because these guys do the small grade work. At the BE and ME level what DPSUs require is people who follow instructions, aka donkeys who obey. This is a fact for the private industry too. You are not expected to change the world at that level. So, it is not a question of the best. DRDO has a tough entrance exam and qualifications are pretty high. So, they get what they think is a trainable workforce. If you want the best workforce then there is only one drawback, communication skills.
The PhD level candidates are difficult to obtain regardless of budget because we don't have capable institutions at that level. But recently a lot of NRIs are coming back to work in DPSUs with American and European degrees. So, the long term prospect will be better than what we have today.
We cannot compare with the US because the pay alone is massive. My friend in the US is currently getting a stipend of $5500 a month as an intern aerospace engineer, it is not even a salary. At the same time a director(highest position) in DRDO gets paid $2000 a month. That apart labour costs are even higher, like a plumber in India will come to your house and take $10-20 for his work, a plumber in the US, you figure. Costs of manufacturing is also very high. So, what should cost $2Billion here, should be anywhere between 5 and 10 times in the US. Anyway we cannot compare with the US defence programs because of the generation gap in technology between us and them.
Even if DRDO is given a budget that equals the US, nothing will improve if the leadership does not improve. It does not matter if deadlines are kept or not, these guys don't have the fear of losing their jobs. We saw heads rolling in the US for the F-35 program only recently. Even if leadership at top levels of a department is good, that does not guarantee capable leadership at lower levels. Btw, Indians cannot work as a team, as though it is hereditary or something. Again blame leadership. I may only be generalizing here, but this is what I heard from three or four guys who worked in DRDO.
That $2Billion is a lot of money for DRDO. ISRO is competing with the world with a budget of $900Million - $1 Billion a year. I think it was $500Million in 2005. I am not sure if DRDO's budget counts money coming in from the Armed forces for their respective projects, maybe it is not counted.
AVIC is spending $1.5Billion on jet engines in China over 5 years. Currently GTRE has requested GoI to release $2.5Billion for the Kaveri K-10. So, the money is there.
DRDO is one of those few companies in the world which gets "free money" and still does not deliver even when working on tech based in the 70s and 80s.
