India has achieved "complete self-reliance" in missile technology and the most advanced missiles can now be developed in the country, DRDO chairman G Satheesh Reddy said on Tuesday.
Delivering a lecture during an online event hosted by the JNU, he also asserted that if a country has to become prosperous and 'Atmanirbhar' (self-reliant), "we need to work on advance technology" and that is where the role of academic institutions will come in a "big way".
Reddy recalled the decades of 1980s and 90s in the evolution of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and hailed the role of scientists, including former president APJ Abdul Kalam, known as the 'Missile Man' of India, who worked on missile technologies that provided a "quantum jump" in development of advanced systems and platforms.
He mentioned the five missiles -- Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Trishul and Nag -- developed by India under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).
"We developed, Prithvi, Agni, Akash, Trishul, Nag under the IGMDP. Agni was also a technology demonstrator for the country in going out of the atmosphere and returning to the atmosphere.
"And, then we joined a select club of countries with ballistic missiles which can intercept an enemy missile and kill it. And, then many more missiles with long-range and more capabilities," he said.