India's indigenous Main Battle Tank ARJUN was developed by DRDO

All competent financial authorities have been empowered to reallocate funds, reduce and enhance costs of projects/ programmes within their delegated powers

To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of defence research establishments, the Defence Ministry has delegated greater decision making powers in financial clearances to these institutions, an official communique announced on Wednesday.

As per the new orders, the Secretary, Defence Research and Development (R&D), can now sanction projects/procurement up to Rs 150 crore from the earlier Rs 75 crore, while the Directors General (DGs) can now sanction projects up to Rs 75 crore instead of Rs 50 crore.

For Proprietary Article Certificate (PAC) cases, the powers of Defence R&D Secretary have been enhanced from Rs 50 crore to Rs 150 crore, while that for DGs it has been enhanced from Rs 25 crore to Rs 75 crore.

For Lab Directors, the increase is from Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore.

In single tender cases, the Secretary can now clear projects up to Rs 75 crore instead of Rs 50 crore earlier; the DGs can do up to Rs 37.5 crore in place of Rs 25 crore; and the Lab Directors can take decisions on their own for financial clearances up to Rs. 2.5 crore instead of Rs 1 crore earlier.

All competent financial authorities have been empowered to reallocate funds, reduce and enhance costs of projects/ programmes within their delegated powers.

"The powers of DGs have been enhanced from Rs 3 crore to Rs 5 crore for sanctioning research projects to universities, technological institutions and to indigenous defence industry under the Technology Development Fund Scheme of DRDO," the Defence Ministry release said.

The powers of post-contract management and maintenance support in respect of contracts for which CFA is the Ministry of Defence, have been delegated to the Directors General of DRDO in line with the delegations already made to the armed forces, it added.

"Consequently, the powers for sanctioning of projects and for procurement that were hitherto with the Secretary, Defence R&D, have now been delegated to the DGs of DRDO and the delegation to the Secretary, Defence R&D, has been doubled," the release said.

A number of powers relating to day-to-day functioning that were centralised at DRDO Headquarters have now been delegated to the DGs and Lab Directors. All the delegations that had been made in respect of the services have also been extended to the DRDO.

"Given the geographically dispersed clusters and laboratories, this will be greatly reduce file movements to and from the DRDO Headquarters at New Delhi and facilitate faster decision-making," the Ministry said.