On Monday. January 4, 2011, the foundation for what will be a new R&D Center for warships will be laid in india. According to a report on http://frontierindia.net, AK Antony, Union Defense Minister will lay the foundation Stone of National Institute for Research and Development in Defense Shipbuilding (NIRDESH) at Chaliyam, near Beypore in Kozhikode Kerala. The National Institute is reportedly being set up on the directions of the Union Defense Minister with the intention of promoting self reliance in production capabilities relating to all kinds of warships, submarines and other related platforms required by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard to safeguard and protect maritime interests of India.
While the country has successfully constructed warships and submarines in India, Research and Development in various disciplines of warship construction like Detail designing, System integration, skill development, industry support, knowledge mining and a plethora of other aspects leading to “drawing board to delivery” of ships on our own, needs to have a sharper focus. The objective of NIRDESH is to promote R&D relating to Warship and Submarine design, and to provide impetus in developing composite and complete indigenous capability to meet future demands of ships and submarines by the Indian maritime security agencies. The Institute also intends to act as the knowledge and data bank repository on special system designs and also offer consultancy to shipyards in various competencies.
NIRDESH will be an autonomous body under Department of Defence Production and funded by Ministry of Defence. The institute will also receive funds from the four Defense Shipyards.
(Source: http://frontierindia.net)