Government information, publications and information dissemination strategies for the future: a case study of DRDO, India

The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) works under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. DRDO, through its network of 52 laboratories, is dedicated towards enhancing self-reliance in defence and also to provide spinoff benefits to society at large. This article describes some of the notable spinoffs from DRDO technologies which have reached the public in the areas of agriculture, agro-animal products, health and hygiene improvement (Malaria control), tele-education and telemedicine, pollution control, energy security, sanitation and waste management. The DRDO libraries in India have not been adequately researched to date. The primary aim of this article is to contribute to the knowledge of the general public about initiatives taken by DRDO in the area of information dissemination. The Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre (DESIDOC) functions as the publication wing of the DRDO. It provides scientific and technical information via specialised publications, monographs, technical bulletins, online journals and popular science publications, primarily in English, although a few are in Hindi also. A full-fledged high quality in-house publishing facility has also been established, which includes designing, layout, typesetting, processing, and printing units for in-house production of DRDO publications. The DRDO has taken due note of the ICT revolution and has taken initiatives to put all its publications available on 24/7 open access (drdo.gov.in). It is presently moving towards creating digital archives for increased information access through open access dissemination for the public at large. The paper promotes the collection, bibliographic control, preservation and dissemination of information about spinoff benefits of defence technologies for the civilian population.