Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), a major player in defence electronics has said that the company wants to concentrate on ‘Make in India’ initiative and indigenisation as major thrust areas.
According to SK Sharma, chairman, BEL, the company is positively contributing to Make in India and its turnover from indigenous technology is 86 per cent. BEL is at the forefront of indigenisation.
The company recently indigenously developed naval surveillance radar which was exported for the first time to Myanmar.
Moreover, BEL is also committed in sourcing products locally it has sourced 40 per cent of input materials from private industries and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). What is even more exciting is that the company is giving more focus on core areas and research and development (R&D), and it is outsourcing non-core areas to Indian industries, adding 800 new indigenous vendors annually.
Talking about new manufacturing initiative, Sharma said that the company is planning an additional test bed facility at Bengaluru for missile and weapon system integration.
India has been concentrating on increasing its defence manufacturing activity and this provides huge opportunity for not just BEL and many small component manufacturers to grow along with others.
By Atanu Kumar Das
