Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has opened its Product Development and Innovation Centre (PD&IC) in Bengaluru with an investment of about ₹220 crore.

“The centre will focus on IPR (intellectual property rights) creation in strategic areas, reducing external dependence for critical subsystems, and standardisation of subsystems,” said Gowtama MV, CMD, BEL.

The centre will contribute to the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government and is expected to provide a single window interface for DRDO and other R&D houses, and strengthen transfer of technology (ToT) processes and collaborative design efforts through involvement of start-ups and MSMEs.

The centre was inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Speaking on the occasion, Singh said that the new centre will contribute to the ‘Make in India’ initiative through indigenisation efforts aimed at self-reliance.

The PD&IC is equipped with facilities and resources to design, develop, prototype and generate manufacturing documents for systems and sub-systems, which can be marketed as standalone products or used in the development of larger systems or system-of-systems by the Strategic Business Units/Units of BEL. Centres of Excellence (COEs) have already been created in PD&IC in the areas of Communication, Electro-Optics & Lasers, and Radar & Weapon Systems.

The centre is constructed on a 26-acre land with 45,000 sq m of floor space, which can house about 750 engineers.

High-power transmitter

Singh unveiled a high-power transmitter for Akash-NG RF seeker, designed by the Microwave Tube Research & Development Center (MTRDC), a DRDO lab, and concurrently developed along with BEL, based on a production order from the Research Centre Imarat (RCI).

Speaking at the ‘Engineers Conclave’ (EC-2019), organised jointly by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), BEL at the Bharat Electronics Academy for Excellence (BAE), Bengaluru,, Singh reiterated the government’s commitment to reach out to remote villages through the Digital India initiative. He added that the development of critical and cutting-edge technologies in defence would help save forex, which can be used for other development activities.

The Engineers Conclave is an annual event aimed at bringing together engineers from across the country to identify, discuss and deliberate upon issues of national importance.