DRDO chief, M Natarajan, to receive CV Raman Birth Centenary award

03 January 2008

New Delhi: M Natarajan, scientific adviser to the defence minister, and secretary, defence (research and development), will be the recipient of the prestigious CV Raman Birth Centenary Award and a gold medal for outstanding achievements in the field of defence research and development and strategic systems.

The award will be conferred on him by the prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on 3 January during the inaugural function of the annual session of the 95th Indian Science Congress being held at the Andhra University campus in Visakhapatnam.

Natarajan did his BTech in mechanical engineering from IIT Chennai and MTech in mechanical engineering, with specialisation in engineering design, from IIT Mumbai. He also holds an MSc in Military Vehicles Technology from the RMCS, UK.

He joined the DRDO in 1970.

Natarajan has worked for over 30 years on several important project assignments relating to the design and development of tracked vehicles. He has been associated with MBT-Arjun programme since its inception. He took over the overall responsibility of development of the MBT Arjun in the capacity of programme director in 1987.

He assumed charge as director of the CVRDE on December 1, 1989.