The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has funded the city-based Dr CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (AIMSCS) to conduct studies on the latest warfare technology including decoding of enemy’s military secrets and strengthening India’s defence capabilities

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: The Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) has funded the city-based Dr CR Rao Advanced Institute of
Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (AIMSCS) to conduct
studies on the latest warfare technology including decoding of enemy’s
military secrets and strengthening India’s defence capabilities.

The Rs 2.8 crore sanctioned to AIMSCS was for research on two critical
areas of defence – radar technology and cryptanalysis. While research
in radar technology will help boosting the country’s defence system,
the project on cryptanalysis deals with coding and decoding secret or
encrypted messages. Cryptanalysis needs mathematically advanced
computerized schemes.

DRDO’s chief and eminent defence scientist Dr VK Saraswat has been in
the news for sanction of funds to AIMSCS, of which he is the honorary
president. Defence sources refute the allegation of misuse of funds
saying that the money was sanctioned for the critical projects as they
were taken up by eminent researchers including Prof Vellenki Umapathi
Reddy, Prof SB Rao and Prof Virender Sule.

“The project on radar systems including target detection, resolution
and identification was taken up as it has tremendous potential of the
research outcome and its usefulness to futuristic radar development
activities of DRDO. Top scientists including Prof PR Mahapatra of
Indian Institute of Science reviewed the proposal and recommended
sanction of funds,” a senior defence official told this correspondent.

According to sources, the morale of the DRDO team has been hit after
the allegation of irregularity in the sanction of funds. CR Rao
institute received funding from a number of agencies including the
government of India (Rs 10 crore), planning commission (Rs 5 crore),
national technical research organisation (Rs 12.48 crore) and
government of Andhra Pradesh (Rs 50 lakh).

The project on cryptanalysis was recommended by director of Scientific
Analysis Group, Delhi, based on the critical areas of research in the
futuristic areas of cryptanalysis and cryptography, DRDO officials
said, adding that the expertise was available with AIMSCS.

According to them, such collaborative work with premier institutes of
the country have played a crucial role in overcoming the damaging
impact of isolation forced upon India and its strategic research
organisations under the harsh international denial regimes.
Involvement of academic and research institutes with expertise in the
critical areas of research is an established process in the country
and elsewhere.

“Only for the reason Dr Saraswat being the president of the Institute,
it does not bind the research body from seeking projects and funding
from various government bodies, research organisations including those
of DRDO,” another DRDO official said.

They found fault with the audit saying it was conducted within the
premises of the Controller General Defence Account’s office and in
complete violation of audit norms; there was no entry meeting to even
explain the scope of audit. They point out that the auditing
authorities did not seek any clarifications or replies of the DRDO