The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh presented the DRDO Awards for the year 2011 for outstanding contribution in various areas of technology in thepresence ofthe Defence Minister Shri AK Antony and a galaxy of dignitariesin a brief ceremony here today. The Awards were to honour individual Scientists/Teams of DRDO and partners of DRDO from other sectors for their outstanding contributions in furthering DRDO’s efforts in self-reliance.

The Silicon Trophy for the Best Systems Laboratory of DRDO has been awarded to Instruments Research & Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun for design and development of Electro-optical Fire Control System for Navy and other significant contributions in the field of Night Vision Devices.

The Titanium Trophy for the Best Science Laboratory of DRDO has been awarded to Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), Mysore for developing innovative technologies for convenience foods, food preservation and processing, food packaging and safety of processed foods.

The Life Time Achievement Award has been conferred on Prof P Rama Rao in recognition of his exceptional contributions of the highest order in the multi-fold array of technology and management initiatives. Prof Rama Rao’s immense contributions to Metallurgy and Material Science, in particular, have significantly enriched DRDO. Many novel materials and products developed under his stewardship are extensively being used today in all strategic programs and weapons.

In recognition of their outstanding contributions and leadership qualities, the Technology Leadership Awards for the year 2011 have been awarded to following Scientists:

1.        Shri AK Chakrabarti, Scientist, Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad for outstanding contributions in the successful development of the first Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile System (SLBM) for the nuclear powered platform ‘ARIHANT’.

2.      Dr K Sekhar, Scientist & Chief Controller Research & Development, DRDO HQrs, inter alia,  for noteworthy contributions to the Indian Missile Programme over two decades leading to induction of several strategic and tactical missile systems; for making DRDE, Gwalior a centre of excellence indetection, protection and decontamination of chemical and biological warfare agents.

3.      Dr K Tamilmani, Scientist & Chief Executive, Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC),Bengaluru for profound technical expertise and leadership in addressing airworthiness and certification of ab-initio, licensed and bought out Aircraft Systems of country.

Academic Excellence Awards are given to members from academia associated with DRDO for research in emerging areas. Such directed research helps DRDO in capability building. For the year 2011, there are two awardees. Prof VG Idichandy, Deptt of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai along with his team has made significant contributions in study of hydrodynamics of missiles. Dr P Seetharamiah, Professor, Deptt of Computer Science & Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, has  developed Signal Processing algorithms, software tools for applications in under water communications, active noise control-based Silencer and speech processing algorithms for applications in Implantable Receiver Stimulator Units.

The transformation of technologies developed by DRDO into products/systems/processes for Armed forces requires absorption of technologies by the production agencies. Defence Technology Absorption Award is given to DRDO’s industrial partners for their support in this endeavor.  M/s Graphite India Limited, Bengaluru has established the Carbon-Carbon brake disc manufacturing facilities by assimilating and absorbing the intricate aspects of C/C brake disc process technology, acquiring special skills in fabrication aspects and successfully producing C/C brake discs for limited series production (LSP) and special Series Production (SP) of Air Force and Naval version of Tejas aircraft (LCA) to airworthy standards. In recognition of the significant contributions, they are conferred with the award for the year 2011.

DM/HH/NN