: Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) today said the company's spend on R&D isexpected to grow to 12 per cent over the next five years.

"Our target is actually to touch 10 per cent, we are about 8.5 per cent now. In the next three to five years we will grow beyond 10 to 12 per cent," BEL Director (R&D) Ajit TKalghatgi said.

He said the company focused "very heavily" on design and development and "so we have a very strong R&D focus."



Compared with the industry standard in India, BEL was the largest spender on indigenisation or indigenous R&D development.

Putting a number to the R&D spend of BEL at a conference at the Aero India 2017 air show here, Kalghatgi said it amounts to about Rs 500 to 700 crore per year.

Stating that the money is spent on development of new projects, new technology and new products, he said, "we are not into fundamental research as we are an industry. We work with academic community we fund for projects, but developing a technology module and product design which is relevant for an industry is being addressed by BEL."



The company works very closely with DRDO and also co-develop with it with work share, as well as investment sharing on some projects.

BEL today said it was awarded an offset contract for supply of 10 numbers of CoMPASS systems for use in Light Combat Helicopters (LCH) being manufactured by HAL by Elbit Systems Electro-Optics Ltd (ELOP), Israel.

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