DRDO tackles Covid-19 pandemic, but keeps focus on battlefield products

DRDO's success over the last 15 months has been in its primary role of developing conventional defence equipment and technologies

Within this year’s defence capex budget of about Rs 137,000 crore, the Defence R&D Organisation’s (DRDO's) capital allocation of Rs 11,375 crore makes it India’s best-funded science and technology organisation. It has wasted no time in throwing its design and development expertise and manpower into combating the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
Since India’s first Covid-19 case was reported on January 30, 2020, senior DRDO officials say they developed 19 technologies and over a hundred products to combat the pandemic. These include indigenous sanitiser and five-layered N-99 masks, four variants of personal protective equipment (PPE) of which 3.5 million units are currently