Wednesday, April 29, 2009

India's BEL Has New Strategy For Growth

India's BEL Has New Strategy For Growth
(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI - April 29, 2009: As part of its new growth strategy, India's largest defense electronics company, Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), plans to strike joint ventures with foreign companies in the future, a company executive said. BEL, Bangalore, also plans to enter the nuclear power instrumentation market as part of the strategy, and will henceforth give priority to defense and even homeland security products, the executive said. The growth initiatives have been recommended by consulting firm KPMG, which was hired in 2008 to help BEL compete in the emerging business environment and restructure itself. BEL, with an order book at about $2 billion as of April 1, recorded $923.6 million in sales for the year 2008-09 compared with the previous year's $820.5 million. The BEL executive said the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Astra Microwave Products, Hyderabad, India, for microwave components. Under another agreement signed this year, BEL and U.S. defense giant Boeing will jointly develop an analysis and experimentation center in India to help customers make better-informed decisions on modernizing the country's defense forces. Some significant orders that BEL executed during the year include artillery combat command and control systems for India's network-centric warfare effort, radar warning receivers, surveillance radar elements, thermal imager-based integrated observation equipment, the Rohini 3-D surveillance radar, shipborne and airborne electronic warfare systems, laser rangefinders and night-vision binoculars, the BEL executive said.

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