New Delhi (PTI): India's premier defence research agency, DRDO, will develop a medium-range and long- endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in association with an Indian industry partner.

"To reduce the time for design, development and subsequent transfer of technology to an industry for bulk production of a MALE UAV, DRDO has been authorised to associate with a production and development partner (PADP) from eligible industries on a competitive basis," Defence Minister A K Antony said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

To select the development partner, the DRDO has released a request for proposal (RFP), he said.

"DRDO has shortlisted four industries consortia through a transparent process and released a RFP for PADP," Antony said.

The selected PADP will work with DRDO during the design and development of the UAV and absorb the technologies.

"The PADP would become the system integrator and provide product support after induction," he said.

Replying to another question, the minister said the Defence Research Laboratory (DRL), Tezpur is working on fresh water algae to use them as source for bio-diesel.

"DRL is trying to identify a fresh water algal strain in North-Eastern region as a source of higher lipid content, which can be converted in to bio-diesel," he said.

"The laboratory is collecting samples of micro algae from different districts in North east for identification of a strain, which has higher amount of lipid contents for bio-fuel production," he added.