Government's premier research institute, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been attracting students from prestigious technical and management institutes of India.

DRDO held campus drive at the top institutes of the country and managed to catch a total of 20 students across IITs, offering gross monthly pay of Rs 35,000 to an entry-level scientist besides some incentives.

Experts believe that the government job security, in tough times of global slowdown, is one of the reasons for students to opt for the brain pool of DRDO besides lucrative remuneration after revision of pay scale and speedy provisions of promotion.

Meanwhile, 100 overseas Indians with MS and PhDs besides 50 mid-level scientists who had left the defence labs, are also willing to work for DRDO.

The research institute also witnessed zero attrition at DRDO for the last two years against an average 18 per cent attrition in 2006 and 2007.

Dr. Prahlada, Chief Controller-R&D (SI), DRDO, said, "Fortunately, there has been hardly any attrition in the last two years. It used to be around 18 per cent three years ago."

The government is likely to increase the defence R&D budget and is currently working out plans to spend funds worth Rs 2,00,000 crore through public and private agencies for developing, upgrading and introducing new aeronautical products and technologies for civil as well as military applications.