Scheme of Internship of Students to DRDO Labs/Estts for Project Training(SISDRDOLEPT)

Overview

About SISDRDOLEPT

DRDO's own statement of what this internship offers is a short list of salient features, and a stipend is not on it. The money shows up somewhere else, in the advertisements individual DRDO laboratories publish for a paid internship, where Rs 5,000 a month attaches to one duration and no other. Training under the scheme can run from 4 weeks to 6 months, and only the full 6 months draws that payment. What happens to a student who walks out at month five is the one point these laboratories do not answer alike, and the gap between their answers is Rs 15,000.

The scheme belongs to the Defence Research and Development Organisation under the Ministry of Defence, and it is written narrowly. Its stated purpose is exposure for would-be graduates and postgraduates in engineering and general sciences to the research and development work DRDO does in fields relevant to the defence sector, and the corresponding entry on the myScheme portal repeats that framing. Nothing here is awarded on family income, and no money moves under the scheme itself.

What makes it unlike most central internship schemes is that there is no scheme office to apply to. DRDO's laboratories are the scheme. An intake happens because a laboratory director has a vacancy and approves your attachment, and DRDO's own terms make the training permitted subject to vacancies at labs and approval by the lab director (DRDO, Vacancies: Know More).

The network you are writing into is large and scattered. A written reply in the Lok Sabha on 5 August 2022 put the count at 46 labs and establishments, including five Young Scientists Laboratories (Ministry of Defence, Lok Sabha reply). That figure is four years old and DRDO has reorganised clusters since, so treat it as the shape of the network rather than today's exact tally.

The paid version sits on top of this arrangement and is a different document. Most labs advertise it without printing the terms behind it; SSPL, Delhi is the one in this set that reproduces the guidelines prescribed for the paid internship in full, and they set the period at 4 weeks minimum to 6 months maximum, with only candidates offered the full six months eligible for a stipend of Rs 5,000 per month paid by the lab through electronic transfer (SSPL paid internship advertisement, 30 July 2026).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

DRDO advertises these windows laboratory by laboratory, so there is no single opening date to diarise. A lab posts a notice when it has vacancies and budget, then closes it, and the intervals between one lab's rounds are irregular enough that watching a single establishment is a poor strategy.

The 2026 rounds show what the pattern looks like in practice.

Two things follow from that table. In the DGRE, INMAS, DEAL and DRDL rounds the gap between the closing date and the joining date runs from about two weeks to about five, so the NOC and the police verification acknowledgement have to be in motion before the result arrives; SSPL is the outlier at the other end, closing at the end of September for a term it advertises as beginning in December or January. And DYSL-QT, Pune sets no fixed closing date at all, counting the window from the day the advertisement is published rather than to a calendar date, and its own notice states that period two ways, as 10 days in the body and 20 days in the table of important dates (DYSL-QT paid internship advertisement). A relative window like that is one you can miss by checking monthly.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The scheme's own bar is wide. Students pursuing an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in engineering or in general sciences qualify, and the scheme names no minimum marks, no age limit and no discipline list, because those are set one advertisement at a time.

Read the advertisements and the picture tightens sharply. Only Indian nationals may apply, and INMAS, Delhi leaves no room in its wording: students who studied or are studying in countries outside India are not eligible (INMAS paid internship advertisement 2026).

The year of study matters more than most applicants expect, and the labs do not describe it the same way. INMAS and SSPL each say final year students only, in those words. DEAL, Dehradun addresses the same cohort but writes the bar as semesters already banked, taking B.Tech students who have completed the sixth semester and M.Tech or M.Sc (Electronics) students who have completed the second semester, and shutting out anyone who has failed an examination in the first five semesters (DEAL paid internship advertisement, 27 May 2026). DYSL-QT, Pune counts by semester too, at the seventh or eighth of a B.Tech, the second year of an M.Tech, or the second year of an M.Sc in Physics (DYSL-QT paid internship advertisement 2026).

The academic bar and the size of the intake move between labs as well, which is why the lab you pick is a strategic choice and not a preference.

Two conditions sit outside the marks bar and catch people out. Every advertisement in this set asks for a request or referral letter signed by the principal, head of department or director of your institution, worded by DGRE as a request on behalf of its highly deserving meritorious students only. And the attachment has to belong to your course: DGRE states for both its undergraduate and postgraduate categories that the internship must be a part of their degree courses, which is what makes a final year project the natural fit.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The scheme record carries no list of who is barred, and that reads as though nobody is. The advertisements disagree, and their disqualifications are procedural rather than categorical, which makes them easier to trip over.

Arriving late or arriving incomplete ends it. DGRE rejects an incomplete or erroneous application, or one received after the due date, and states that no further communication will be entertained. Suppression of facts leads to disqualification at any stage of the selection process or later on. Canvassing, or a personal follow up meant to influence the selection, cancels the candidature immediately.

DEAL adds an academic exclusion that no average can rescue: a student who has failed any examination in the first five semesters of the degree cannot apply, whatever the resulting CGPA.

Verification is where a borderline case usually ends. DGRE verifies credentials and summarily rejects any deviation from or non conformity with the stated qualification, marks or facts, and police verification from the home town or place of residence is a joining condition rather than a formality to be produced later (DGRE paid internship advertisement 2025).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Nothing about a project attachment recurs from year to year, so the live question is extension rather than renewal, and the paid internship guidelines answer it directly. A candidate enrolled for a certain period may ask the laboratory to extend it, the lab examines that request from a financial and infrastructure angle, and the outcome is communicated before the initial period expires.

The ceiling is hard, and the money stops before the ceiling does. An extension is subject to an overall limit of six months, and the same guidelines add in parentheses that there is no provision for grant of stipend beyond 6 months in the scheme. A student who joins for a 4 week attachment and later wants to convert it into the paid version is therefore asking for an extension (SSPL paid internship advertisement), and the answer turns on whether that lab still has the budget and the bench space.

What you get

Award & benefits

The certificate is the deliverable, and it is conditional. On successful completion, which the labs define as clearing the evaluation of the project work, submitting the project report and finishing the other formalities, the lab issues a completion certificate. DGRE and INMAS both split the writing in two, asking for a progress report at the three month mark and the project report at the end. Leave partway and DGRE is blunt: no certificate of completion will be issued to such students, and no payment will be made. DEAL draws the line in the same place, ruling a student who does not finish the six months ineligible for the stipend as well as the certificate. INMAS, DRDL and DYSL-QT draw it earlier, withholding payment only from a student who has not completed three months and releasing the first instalment to one who has. Which of those two rules applies to you is decided by the advertisement you answered, not by the scheme.

Where a stipend applies, the split is the notice's own arithmetic and not a monthly rate you are left to multiply. DEAL states the whole sum as Rs 30,000, paid as Rs 15,000 after completing 3 months and Rs 15,000 after completing 6 months, subject to attendance of a minimum of 15 days in a month (DEAL paid internship advertisement). DYSL-QT prints the same two figures against the same two milestones (DYSL-QT paid internship advertisement), so the two halves of that Rs 30,000 are published, not calculated. Money reaches the student's bank account directly, never through the college.

Attendance is the condition applicants skim past. DRDL makes both the stipend and retention on the internship depend on a minimum of 15 working days per month of physical attendance at DRDL, ASL or CAS (DRDL paid internship advertisement 2026).

Living costs stay with the student. No boarding or lodging expenses are admissible at DGRE, and INMAS puts lodging, boarding, transport, medical and any other personal expenditure entirely on the individual. The single concession anywhere in this set is at DRDL, where selected candidates can buy lunch, tea and snacks at a subsidised rate at the wet canteen.

• Internship Training is provided in the areas relevant to DRDO.
• Provide opportunity to interns to be associated with projects.
• Note: DRDO shall not be liable for any compensation in case of personal injury resulting from an accident occurring during the students' attachment to DRDO Labs/Establishments.
• Duration of Training: The period of training generally is 4 weeks to 6 Months.
• Note: The duration of training will depend on the type of course and is subject to the discretion of the Lab Director.

What to prepare

Documents required

The scheme record asks for identity proof, a photograph, marksheets, a statement of purpose and a declaration form. What a lab actually collects at joining is heavier than that, and two items take weeks rather than days to arrange.

The first is the letter from your institution. DGRE wants a No Objection Certificate in original on college letterhead saying the student will be relieved for the internship, alongside a bonafide certificate. SSPL wants the recommendation letter or NOC on institute letterhead with the start date clearly mentioned, which means your college has to commit to a date before the lab has given you one.

The second is police verification. DRDL asks for the acknowledgement received from the local police station at the time of joining, and INMAS asks for a police verification certificate outright.

Then the undertakings, which are what separate this from an ordinary campus internship. DGRE, DEAL, DRDL, INMAS and DYSL-QT each take two of them at joining: adherence to the Indian Official Secrets Act, 1923, and compliance with the IT rules and regulations applicable to the Ministry of Defence (INMAS paid internship advertisement). SSPL's notice binds its interns to the same Act without printing that second form, and takes a written undertaking on non-publication instead. DGRE adds a declaration that the student is not being paid for any other internship. INMAS asks for a medical fitness certificate from a practitioner holding at least an MBBS degree, and notes that an indemnity form will come from the college when the lab requires it.

Originals travel with you. Aadhaar card and college identity card in original for verification, all previous semester marksheets in original, three passport size photographs, and bank details for the stipend transfer. DGRE returns originals immediately after verification, so the college's own record is not held up.

Step by step

How to apply

One routing rule decides everything else. Students correspond with the concerned lab or establishment as per their discipline, through their institute or college, and DRDO's scheme terms put it in exactly those words. Not headquarters, and not a central portal, because no portal exists for this scheme.

Pick the lab by subject rather than by city. DGRE takes its interns into remote sensing and geoinformatics from Chandigarh, INMAS into radiation countermeasures and the neural bases of cognitive traits in Delhi, SSPL into compound semiconductors, MEMS, laser diodes and infrared sensors, DEAL into software based radios and satellite communication in Dehradun, DRDL into missile systems in Hyderabad, and DYSL-QT into quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing from the DIAT campus at Girinagar, Pune (DYSL-QT paid internship advertisement). A letter sent to the wrong discipline costs a whole cycle.

The submission mechanics then differ per lab, and this is the part applicants get wrong most often. DEAL accepts an application only by hand or through Indian Post and states that soft copies sent by email will not be considered. DGRE wants speed post with the branch code written on the envelope. INMAS wants a single combined PDF emailed to its Research Academic Cell and a Google Form filled in as well, which is worth flagging because the scheme record lists the application mode as offline and nothing else. DRDL runs a walk in interview, with applications handed over in envelopes at the registration desk. Every one of these notices is published on the DRDO Vacancies page, with its own published date and end date.

Tracking an Application After It Is Sent

No status page exists for this scheme, and the advertisements are candid about what replaces it. DGRE and DRDL both state that no communication will be undertaken for rejected candidates, so silence is itself the outcome. Shortlisted students are notified about the joining procedures by email at the address written on the application form, and DGRE advises candidates to check their email periodically during the selection process. DRDL intimates the interview date by phone and on the DRDO website after shortlisting. The practical consequence is narrow but useful: keep that email address alive for the full cycle, and treat the lab's HRD division as the only place an update can come from.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Academic merit decides the shortlist, and DGRE, DEAL, DRDL, INMAS and DYSL-QT all print the same sentence to say so: selection is entirely on merit, with no communication undertaken for rejected candidates. What separates applicants below that headline is the interaction.

INMAS conducts an interaction over video conferencing or telephone where required and counts performance in it towards the final selection. DGRE shortlists on the CGPA or percentage across all previous semesters together with an online or telephonic interview. DRDL shortlists on interaction or interview plus the percentage of marks, converting CGPA to percentage and averaging the completed semesters or years. SSPL describes its process as screening or interview based, and DYSL-QT keeps three options open, an offline examination, a telephonic interview or an interaction in person.

DGRE publishes a tie breaker that the other notices leave unstated, and it is worth knowing when two candidates sit level: the marks of the lower examination decide.

Above all of it sits the laboratory director. The scheme makes the attachment subject to vacancies and to the director's approval, and INMAS adds that the number of positions advertised is indicative and may increase or decrease at the absolute discretion of the establishment. A published vacancy count is therefore an intention, not a promise.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The security condition shapes what the work can be. Interns are permitted only to unclassified areas of DRDO labs and establishments, and the guidelines reproduced by SSPL add that an intern is granted only the duty or task assigned for the internship period, given the nature of the work and the Indian Official Secrets Act, 1923, and is liable under that Act and under DRDO's own rules (SSPL paid internship advertisement). Failure to comply with the laboratory's rules, or any breach of the Act, is grounds for termination without notice.

Publication is closed off in the same clause, and students planning a paper should read it before joining rather than after. An intern may not disclose or publish information related to any DRDO subject that is restricted or confidential in nature on any platform, newspapers, periodicals and social media included, and an undertaking to that effect is taken at joining.

Smaller terms govern the working day. Hours follow the laboratory's, attendance is marked the laboratory's way, and no leave except sick leave against a valid prescription is granted. Equipment issued to an intern has to be handled carefully, and the intern is liable to compensate DRDO for damage or degradation.

Three disclaimers close the arrangement, and none of them is negotiable. The provisions of the Apprentices Act, 1961 do not apply (DRDO, Vacancies: Know More). DRDO is in no way obliged to offer employment on completion of the training, and completion confers no claim to it. DRDO is not liable for compensation for personal injury caused by an accident arising in the course of the student's attachment.

Get help

Contact

Correspondence goes to the director of the laboratory you want, routed through your institute, and that laboratory's advertisement carries the postal address and the branch codes to quote. DGRE, Chandigarh publishes director.dgre@gov.in with a Kind Attention line for its HRD Division. INMAS, Delhi takes applications at research-academic@gov.in, addressed to its Research Academic Cell. DEAL, Dehradun declines email entirely and receives applications only in hard copy at its Raipur Road address in Dehradun.

Where no advertisement is currently out for the lab you want, the request still travels the same way, from your college to that laboratory's director. DRDO headquarters does not process these applications, and the organisation's Vacancies page is the one place every laboratory's notice appears.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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