India has to improve its capability to develop innovative materials for the defence sector to fuel Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” campaign, Avinash Chander, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and Director-General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, said here on Wednesday.
Delivering a lecture on “Materials for defence and nation-building” at the annual convention of the Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Science, Mr. Chander said the country was unable to harness deposits of rare earth metals needed for research in the sector.
“China has 89 per cent of the rare earth metals deposits [in the world], and it has started to embargo and deny access to them,” he said. “We have to develop capabilities to utilise our natural resources. One or two scientific laboratories can’t do this. It should be a combined effort of all academic institutions, laboratories and universities.”
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He said India had not been able to develop a disruptive technology that would redefine, change and open new windows of research to develop innovative materials for the defence sector. “Titanium is used in almost all aerospace engines. We are not able to come up with world-class engines just because we don’t have a good supply of such a material. The bullet-proof jackets used by U.S. forces are eight to 10 kg heavier and do not suit our forces. We have to reduce the weight of bullet-proof jackets by at least half, but have not reached there yet,” he said.