India’s nuclear submarine, its supersonic cruise missile, and its home-built fighter jet all trace back to one organisation. This article covers DRDO’s history, structure, and major programmes.
Must Know
The Organisation
DRDO’s Founding, and Its Structure and Scale
- StoryThe Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was founded in 1958. The goal was to give India’s military a dedicated, in-house research arm, rather than relying only on imported technology.
- HowIt formed by merging three existing bodies: the Technical Development Establishment, the Directorate of Technical Development and Production, and the Defence Science Organisation.
- StructureDRDO works under the Ministry of Defence. It is headquartered in New Delhi.
- ScaleIt runs a network of over 50 laboratories, covering fields like missiles, aeronautics, armaments, materials, and naval systems.
DRDO’s Motto
- MottoIts motto is “Balasya Mulam Vigyanam” — “Strength’s origin is in science.”
Good to Know
Major Programmes and People
The IGMDP Missile Families, and BrahMos
- ProgrammeDRDO developed India’s major missile families — Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Nag, and Trishul — largely under one umbrella effort. That effort was the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).
- Why It ExistedIGMDP ran from the early 1980s to 2007. It was designed to give India a full family of indigenous missiles, instead of depending on a single imported design for each role.
- StoryDRDO co-developed BrahMos, a supersonic cruise missile, jointly with Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya.
- How FastBrahMos flies at nearly three times the speed of sound, making it one of the fastest cruise missiles in operational service anywhere.
- VersionsIt now flies in land, sea, and air-launched versions, and has also become one of India’s leading defence exports.
HAL Tejas, and INS Arihant
- StoryDRDO’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) led the design of HAL Tejas, India’s indigenous light combat aircraft.
- Division of LabourADA designed the aircraft; HAL then manufactures it. This is the same DRDO-designs, HAL-builds pattern seen across several other Indian defence platforms.
- StoryDRDO is credited with developing INS Arihant, India’s first indigenously built nuclear-powered submarine.
- Why It MattersOn 5 November 2018, INS Arihant completed its first deterrence patrol. This completed India’s “nuclear triad” — the ability to launch a nuclear strike from land, air, and sea.
- ScaleOnly five other countries (the USA, Russia, the UK, France and China) can deliver nuclear warheads from a submarine. INS Arihant made India the sixth.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and Avinash Chander
- StoryDr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam led DRDO for years before later becoming President of India.
- StoryKalam grew up in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, in a family of modest means. As a boy, he sold newspapers to add to the family income.
- HowHe studied physics, then aeronautical engineering, joined DRDO in 1958, and later moved to ISRO in 1969. There he was Project Director of India’s first satellite launch vehicle, SLV-3, which put the Rohini satellite into orbit in 1980.
- ResultHe returned to DRDO in 1982 to lead the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, the effort that built Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul and Nag. This work earned him the nickname “Missile Man of India,” years before he became President in 2002.
- Pokhran-II, 1998As Secretary of DRDO and the Prime Minister’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Kalam served as a principal coordinator of India’s 1998 nuclear tests. He worked alongside BARC director R. Chidambaram. (Source: WION)
- StoryAvinash Chander, a chief architect of the Agni missile series, later served as DRDO’s 11th Director General, from 2013 to 2015.
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Great to Know
How DRDO Has Changed
Opening Up to Private Industry, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and From Lab Chief to President
- ShiftDRDO increasingly opens its own test facilities to private industry, not just to its own scientists.
- WhyThis reflects a shift from pure in-house secrecy toward supporting India’s wider defence-manufacturing base.
- PatternIts portfolio spans everything from Cold War-era missile secrecy to today’s Atmanirbhar Bharat push for self-reliant defence production — the same organisation, adapting across very different eras.
- TakeawayThat a DRDO chief, Kalam, later became India’s President shows how technical leadership in this field can translate into the country’s highest civilian office.
Where BrahMos Got Its Name, and DRDO’s COVID-19 Drug
- StoryBrahMos takes its name from two rivers: the Brahmaputra, which flows through India, and the Moskva, which flows through Moscow.
- WhyThe name itself symbolises the India-Russia joint venture behind the missile, one river standing in for each partner country. (Source: Wikipedia)
- StoryDRDO’s work goes beyond weapons. During the 2020 pandemic, its Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) lab developed 2-DG, an anti-COVID-19 drug, with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories.
- ApprovalIndia’s drug regulator cleared 2-DG for emergency use in May 2021, and trials showed it cut patients’ dependence on supplemental oxygen. (Source: Invest India)
- Why it matters2-DG is a reminder that DRDO’s labs cover far more than missiles and aircraft, extending into medicine and materials science as well.
Current Affairs
📰 Current Affairs
New DRDO Chairman, and AoN Approvals
- 31 May 2026Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh took additional charge as DRDO Chairman. He succeeded Dr. Samir V. Kamat, who had led DRDO since August 2022.
- SourceIndia Strategic.
- 2025The government granted 22 Acceptance of Necessity approvals for DRDO-developed systems, worth roughly ₹1.30 lakh crore, to be manufactured by Indian industry.
- Test AccessDRDO also opened its test facilities to outside industry in 2025, running over 4,000 tests for private firms and Defence Public Sector Undertakings.
- SourceManorama Yearbook.
‘RAKSHA’ Defence Diplomacy Document Unveiled
- 3 Sep 2026Defence Minister Rajnath Singh released ‘RAKSHA’, a comprehensive document outlining India’s strategic roadmap for global defence partnerships over the next 10 years.
- Four PillarsThe document rests on four pillars: Strategic Partnerships, Capacity Building, Indigenous Exports, and Maritime Security. The last casts India as a Net Security Provider in the Indian Ocean Region.
- Why it matters hereIndigenous Exports is the pillar most relevant to DRDO’s own work, since Make-in-India defence platforms this article covers are exactly what such exports depend on.
- SourcePIB, 3 September 2026.
PYQ
Exam Point of View
CDS PYQs: Institutional Partners, the Actual Machines, and Mission Shakti
- RRU QuestionCDS asked whether a DRDO-RRU MoU covers training/technology support for defence and internal security (true), and whether RRU sits under the Ministry of Education (false).
- RRU WhyRashtriya Raksha University actually falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs, not Education — a detail easy to assume wrong given RRU’s academic-sounding name.
- RRU LinkSource: CDS I 2026, General Knowledge (see Q119).
- Machines QuestionCDS-II 2018 (Q66) asked what “Tejas” actually is. CDS-II 2021 (Q107) asked for the Agni-P missile’s specific range band.
- Machines WhyBoth questions test precise recall over a general sense of “DRDO makes weapons.” Tejas is specifically the light combat aircraft, not the submarine, tank, or carrier a reader might confuse it with. Agni-P is an intermediate-range missile at 1,000-2,000 km — a specific enough figure that a vague “it’s a long-range missile” answer would miss.
- Machines LinkCDS-II 2018, Q66 (Tejas) and CDS-II 2021, Q107 (Agni-P range).
- Shakti QuestionCDS-2 2024 (Q29) asked what Mission Shakti actually did, offering satellite-launch options as tempting distractors.
- Shakti WhyThe trap works because Mission Shakti sounds like it could be a launch programme. It’s the opposite: DRDO’s March 2019 anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test, which destroyed a live Indian satellite in orbit, not something that launched one.
- Shakti LinkCDS-2 2024, Q29 (Mission Shakti).
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