BEL to establish Rs. 400-cr. R&D centre.

Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) will set up a Rs. 400 crore research and development centre this year to create products for its main client – the Armed Forces.

Over the next three years, the centre will develop and manufacture several products that have been identified in half-a-dozen core areas, some of which are now imported at high costs.

BEL Chairman and Managing Director S.K. Sharma told The Hindu in a recent interview that construction had begun on 25 acres of land on its Jalahalli campus.

Typical products would be generation radars, missile electronics, electro-optics, communication equipment, C4I (command, control, communications, computer & Intelligence) and night vision devices that detect intruders.

Mr. Sharma said, 'We are enhancing our innovation and R&D capability with a new Product Development and Innovation Centre.

It will have an investment of about Rs. 400 crore over three years. Initially, it will consolidate the R&D (and staff) from our smaller units and later focus on developing futuristic technologies and products.' It would have about 800 engineers, half of them new recruits.


THE HINDU