The end of colonial rule was an important milestone worth celebrating, but what lay ahead was a long journey towards the making of modern India. The narrative of ‘modern India’ would be incomplete without the stories of institutions that helped shape India as we know it today. This volume, part of a series on institutions that shaped modern India, gives an in-depth introduction to one such institution—The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). it engagingly tells the story of DRDO from its inception to present times. Capturing its history and its evolution, dotted with several remarkable achievements and some equally critical challenges, and offering thought-provoking suggestions too, this book is an ode to an institution that has been a crucial contributor to India’s defense needs, equipping it with state-of-the-art indigenous defense technologies, and has played a seminal role in nation-building.