Bharat Electronics to invest Rs 25 billion over the next three years

Public sector defence and aerospace major Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) is planning to invest around Rs 25 billion over the next three years. Besides the company also said that it is planning to set up new marketing offices outside India to boost exports.

Speaking to Business Standard at Defexpo18, M V Gowtama, chairman and managing director, BEL said that the company is setting up two plants, for which lands are acquired, at Anantapur and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Anantapur plant will make electronic radio frequency seekers and Machilipatnam for electro-optic. Both the plants are expected to be ready in the next 18 months.

He noted in the last two years the company had invested around Rs 6 billion.

The increase in investment is coming on the backdrop of company's plans to increase its revenue from domestic and export markets.

BEL's revenue grew to around Rs 100 billion in 2017-18 and company expects to grow at around 12-15 per cent in the next three years. Of the total revenue around 85 per cent is from the defence, the balance 15 per cent is from civilian applications.

The growth will be faster if the Government's policy is more supportive of make-in-India programme.

Gowtama had asked the Government to consider to remove customs duty, which will bring down the cost for the customer.

To boost exports the company is setting up new offices outside India. First one would be in Vietnam, which will be inaugurated in the next one or two months. Other focus would be south Asian countries.

This comes on the backdrop of company's plan to increase the exports share in total revenue to 5-10 per cent from the current around 2-3 per cent. 

DCM Shiram forays into defence-making

DCM Shriram Industries on Friday said it will foray into defence manufacturing with the launch of new light 

bullet-proof vehicle. 

Alok B Shriram, vice-chairman and deputy managing director, said: “Our aim is to also export the vehicles to other nations and peace-keeping forces. Our company decided to foray into the defence equipment manufacturing space after the announcement of the DPP 2016." The company has short-listed four areas it would like to concentrate on; the primary one being armoured vehicles.

BEL to export voting machines

Bharat Electronics Ltd  (BEL), one of the two companies which manufacture and supply Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), is planning to export from India.

M V Gowtama, chairman and managing director, BEL said that Nepal has shown interested in the last general election, but due to short notice, the company could not supply. For the next general election, we will be able to supply, besides countries like Namibia, Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries have also shown interest.

On the security and tampering allegations, he said, these machines are like electronic calculators, which are not connected to any network so one cannot tamper. They are traceable and auidable also.