- This year, BEL is expecting more orders from ISRO
- BEL has bought 30 acres in Devanahalli, near Bengaluru allotted by KSSIDC
- BEL is also keen to be part of the national common mobility card (NCMC) mission
Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited’s (BEL) order book as on April 1, 2019 stood at ₹51,798 crore as compared with ₹40,115 crore in April 2018. During the year 2018-19, company has acquired ₹23,431 crore worth of new orders. The expenditure on R&D was ₹1,077 crore as against ₹988 crore in 2017-18.
The value added per employee was ₹60.38 lakh in comparison to ₹45.86 lakh the previous year. On the export front, order book stood at $116.62 million as on April 1, 2019.
In his annual press conference, M V Gowtama, chairman and managing director of BEL said that about 96 per cent (provisional) of sales revenue accrued is from indigenous technology and of the company’s ₹51,798 crore order book, major customers were Indian Navy around ₹25,000 crore, Indian Army ₹9,000 crore and the Indian Air Force ₹8,800 crore.
Of late, the company has begun to diversify more on civilian applications and has identified space electronics, solar, homeland security, smart card, telecom, railways, civil aviation and software as service, he added.
Focus on ISRO
Gowtama said that after assembling and building one satellite for ISRO, BEL has got confidence now of going ahead to build future satellites by partnering with Indian industry. He further added that this year, BEL is expecting more orders from ISRO.
To take it forward, the company has bought 30 acres in Devanahalli, near Bengaluru allotted by KSSIDC. There BEL plans to build separate facility especially to cater to ISRO’s satellite needs.
An eye on mobility card
BEL is also keen to be part of the national common mobility card (NCMC) mission. Gowtama said that to be part of the mission, so far BEL has tested and proved many concepts with products in the country.
He informed that in Ahmedabad, BEL has installed fare collection gates for metro with open access. This can be applicable to any metros operating in the country. On the other hand, in Maharashtra, BEL is working with the state transport corporation for the supply of hand-held devices and with NHAI toll collection system as part of a national project with a single mobility card for pan-India usage.
