What is Ugram?

About Ugram

• ‘Ugram’ is a state-of-the-art indigenous assault rifle.
• It has been developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), a unit of DRDO, in collaboration with a private industry partner.
• It was developed in less than 100 days.
• It has been developed as per the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) of the army into consideration.
• Features:
  • The rifle will deploy rounds of 7.62 mm calibre, making it more ferocious than rifles that use 5.62 mm calibre rounds, like the INSAS rifle, which is popularly used by the armed forces in India, including paramilitary forces. 
  • It has an effective range of 500 metres.
  • It weighs less than four kilograms.
  • The rifle has a 20-round magazine that fires robust and in full auto mode. 

Key Facts about Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)

• It is the R&D wing of the Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India, with a vision to empower India with cutting-edge defence technologies and a mission to achieve self-reliance in critical defence technologies and systems.
• It is India's largest research organisation. 
• Formation: The organisation was formed in 1958 from the amalgamation of the then-existing Technical Development Establishment (TDEs) of the Indian Army and the Directorate of Technical Development & Production (DTDP) with the Defence Science Organisation (DSO). 
• Headquarters: New Delhi.
• It has a network of laboratories engaged in developing defence technologies covering various fields, like aeronautics, armaments, electronics, land combat engineering, life sciences, materials, missiles, and naval systems.

Q1) What are the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR)?

The formulation of the GSQR is one of the initial processes of any new capital procurement. It broadly lays down the reason why the equipment is required, its physical and operational details, as well as the maintainability and quality requirements. The onus of formulating the GSQR rests with the parent directorate that wants the equipment or a nominated directorate, in case the equipment is required by more than one arm/service.

Source: DRDO launches indigenous assault rifle 'Ugram' for armed forces