The Cabinet has given its in principle approval for the setting up of the Indian National Defence University, INDU. The Univesity will be set up at Binola in district Gurgaon of Haryana. <br/><br/>Briefing media on the decisions taken at a meeting of the Cabinet held today, the Information and Broadcasting Minister Mrs. Ambika Soni said the Univeristy will be fully autonomous and will be constituted under the Act of Parliament. <br/><br/>The estimated cost of setting of the university is expected to be to the tune of 295 crore rupees. INDU will undertake long term defence and strategic studies and promote policy oriented research on all aspects related to National Security, this will help in providing input for the strategic national policy making. <br/><br/>The existing four colleges on defence studies will be brought under the ambit of this university but they will continue to maintain their autonomy. The Cabinet also gave its nod for the proposal to enact a law on the safety of dams. A dam safety Bill, 2010 will be introduced in the Parliament in this regard. <br/><br/>According to Mrs. Ambika Soni the objective of such a Bill is to help the States in adopting uniform dam safety norms. It will provide for proper surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of specified dams to protect the persons and property against risks associated with dam failures apart from their safe functioning. <br/><br/>Under the draft Bill the responsibility of setting up an institutional mechanism for ensuring safety of such dams on the Centre, state governments and owners of the specified dams. The draft Bill also has provisions for emergency action plan and disaster management. <br/><br/>AIR correspondent says that the Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal legislative assemblies had adopted resolutions in 2007 for the dam safety legislation to be regulated by an act of Parliament.<br/><br/>The government has decided to set up a new defence technology commission with the Defence Minister as its Chairman to give boost to defence research in the country.This will also ensure effective participation of the private sector in Defence technology.<br/><br/>Giving details of decisions taken by the government in this regard,the Spokesperson of Defence Ministry Mr Sitanshu Kar today said in New Delhi, the DRDO has been asked to work on second generation of Arjun tanks and Akash surface-to-air missiles besides developing a commercial arm through a transparent process .<br/><br/>The decisions also include continuation of Aeronautical Development Agency for design and development of combat aircraft and continuation of the Kaveri aero-engine programme. The other key measures include de-centralisation of DRDO management .<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports, the Rama Rao committee set up three years back ,to review and suggest measures to improve the functioning of DRDO, had submitted its recommendation last year. <br/><br/>This recommendation together with DRDO's views and the report were extensively deliberated upon by the three Services and the Defence Ministry and various stakeholders before arriving at a consensus.