Need students with innovative ideas to make India prosper: DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy

Today, the country is looking for innovations from youngsters who can come out with products that are first-of-its-class in the world. What can make this country prosperous? It is the technology that can make this country prosperous, said Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence (R&D) and Chairman, DRDO who was present at the virtual convocation ceremony by the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM) Kancheepuram. He further added, "For the country to become prosperous, the seed is with institutes like IIITDM where people come to learn science and technology and come up with an innovative idea that involves a lot of design and technology."

IIITD conducted the ninth convocation on October 1 and a total of 293 students studying different courses graduated from IIITDM during this convocation. Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence (R&D) and Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Prof S Sadagopan, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIITDM Kancheepuram, Prof DVLN Somayajulu, Director, IIITDM Kancheepuram, Faculty and staff awarded the degrees virtually to all the students.

Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence (R&D) and Chairman, DRDO (Picture: IIITDM)

Elaborating on how DRDO can support such innovations by students, Dr Satheesh Reddy said, “DRDO has got a scheme called Technology Development Funding. It funds youngsters who are coming out of the colleges as just young graduates and who can join these incubation centres and who has an idea that can be converted into a design. We support them with funds of Rs 1 crore for an idea that actually works for the defence of the country or the security of the country. If you are establishing it as an industry and then you come out with a design and product that can be used in the defence sector, we can provide funds up to Rs 10 crore."

Meanwhile, in their new initiative, IIITDM is planning to launch MTech in Mechanical Engineering with a specialisation in AI and Robotics, and MTech in Power Electronics and System Design shortly. This year, the institute started an MTech programme in Computer Science with a specialisation in Data Science and AI.