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| - Social media is abuzz with the story of a young drone scientist ‘Prathap’, who was purportedly inducted into the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following his extraordinary achievements.
The Quint reached out to Prathap, who refuted these claims and denied receiving any such communication from the Prime Minister’s Office.
THE CLAIM
A Twitter user who goes by the name Amit Singh Rajawat (@satya_AmitSingh) claimed that after Prathap refused a job offer of “very high order” from France, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked DRDO to absorb him.
The tweet has over 7,000 likes and 1,600 retweets.
A longer and more elaborate version of the story is also being shared on Facebook. The message claims that he is 21-years-old and had to face a great deal of hardship in his life due to financial constraints.
The misleading claim was also shared by a website called Indiaglitz.
WHAT WE FOUND
A google search using the terms “Prathap Drone Scientist” directed us to several news reports from December 2019 which mentioned that 22-year-old ‘drone boy’ Prathap is a young scientist who comes from an agrarian family in Karnataka. He won the Albert Einstein Innovation Gold Medal in the International Drone Expo 2018 held at Hanover in Germany.
When we reached out to Prathap, he told us that while other details about him in the viral post are accurate, the part about DRDO absorbing him as a scientist on the recommendation of Prime Minister Modi is not.
“I am in talks with DRDO for a project, cannot disclose anything about that. But I haven’t received any communication from the prime minister or the Prime Minister’s Office, yet. The news about my induction in DRDO is false.”Pratham MN, Scientist
A report by India Times dated 30 December 2019 states that he has “worked on a project with DRDO for drone application in critical national projects.”
When asked about this Prathap said, “I have worked with the organisation but not directly. I partnered with another company which was working on a project for DRDO.”
It should also be noted that the minimum qualification required for an entry-level job at DRDO is a Master’s degree and Prathap doesn’t hold that currently.
Clearly, this rules out the possibility of DRDO absorbing the young scientist.
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