International Exhibitions in India
            To provide a platform for the Indian defence industry to showcase its capabilities, DEO
      organizes two biennial International exhibitions in India, namely, Aero India and Def-expo India.
      While Aero India is dedicated to aerospace and aviation industry, focus of Def-expo India is on
      land and naval systems.
      International Exhibitions Abroad
            With a view to provide an impetus to export potential to Indian Defence Industry, DEO
      organizes “India Pavillion” in major defence international exhibitions abroad to develop market
      for defence products being manufactured by them.
      National Institute for Research and Development in Defence
      Shipbuilding
            National Institute for Research and Development in Defence Shipbuilding (NIRDESH) was
      set up at Kozhikode, Kerala with the objective of achieving self-reliance in shipbuilding. The
      Institute has been envisaged as a Centre of Excellence for India’s futuristic shipbuilding
      programmes. The thrust areas of NIRDESH would be R&D, ship design, technology
      development and training along with industry interfacing, training and project management.
      Research and Development
            Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is the research and development
      arm of the Ministry of Defence. It was created in 1958 by merging the units of Defence Science
      Organisation, which was set up in 1948 to advise and assist the Defence Services on scientific
      problems and to undertake research in areas related to defence, with the then existing Technical
      Development Establishments of the three Services. Subsequently, a separate Department of
      Defence Research and Development (DDRandD) was formed in 1980 to improve administrative
      efficiency. Starting from a cluster of about 10 laboratories in 1958, DRDO today has 46
      laboratories which are spread far and wide; from Tezpur in the east to Mumbai in the west, from
      Leh in the north to Kochi in the south. DRDO’s mandate is to provide assessment and advise on
      scientific aspects of weapons, platforms and surveillance sensors; to carry out research and to
      develop cutting-edge technologies leading to production of state-of the-art sensors, weapon
      systems, platforms and allied equipment for our Defence Services.
            In the recent past, the mandate has been widened to support national cyber security
      architecture which includes testing capabilities, security solutions, networking systems and cyber
      defence tools. In this process, it has also established national infrastructure, enhanced defence
      industrial capability and developed committed quality human resources.
            DRDO is headed by the Scientific Adviser to Raksha Mantri who is also the Secretary,
      Department of Defence Research and Development and Director General RandD (DGRandD).
      Based on the RandD work carried out by the 46 laboratories of DRDO, they are grouped into
      seven technology clusters namely, Armament and Combat Engineering Systems (ACE),
      Aeronautical Systems (AERO), Missiles and Strategic Systems (MSS), Naval Systems and
      Materials (NS and M), Electronics and Communication Systems (ECS), Micro Electronic
      Devices and Computational Systems (MED and CoS) and Life Sciences (LS).