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Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) celebrated Swachhta Pakhwada 2021 from December 1-15, 2021, at all its Units, SBUs and offices spread across the country.

As part of the celebrations, various activities such as administering of Swachhta Pledge, planting of saplings, cleanliness drive at Units, disposing of scrap materials, maintenance of records by respective departments, etc, were organised Companywide. Painting, poster and essay competitions were also arranged for the children of employees.

The Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has developed frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) drone detection radar to detect and track mini- and micro-class drones and UAVs. BEL officials said that they started working on the product nine months ago.

“It delivers a complete surveillance solution (search and track) to threats from drones/UAVs. The maximum detection range for micro drones are 1 km, mini drones are 2 km and small drones are 3 km. The operating temperature of the radar is -20 degree Celsius to +55 degree Celsius. This is a complete indigenous product developed at the BEL with no Transfer of Technology (ToT) from any other organisation,” the official said.

He further added that the drone detection radar (DDR) is capable of providing 360- degree coverage in azimuth. One of the advantages of the radar is that the transmitted power is low and this makes it LPI (Low Probability of Intercept) capable. “Due to its LPl capability, it is extremely difficult for intercept receivers to correctly identify the radar parameters and radar type. Its high processing gain and good range resolution enables very low radar cross section (RCS) target detection. It can also prompt other sensors like electro optical and laser to take countermeasures against the threat by providing target range, azimuth and elevation,” the BEL official explained.

The DDR is capable of monitoring a designated airspace day and night in all weather conditions. The radar can be controlled and operated remotely through wired communication. It is easy to deploy and can be carried in backpacks which makes it portable.

The officials say that the product is customisable. “This can be put on a vehicle, jammer and a gun. It has been tested with various flying objects and the capabilities have been demonstrated before the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force,” he said.

Drones with Hard kill and Soft Kill mechanism

In September, the Indian Navy signed a contract with the BEL for India’s first locally made naval anti-drone system (NADS) with “hard kill” and “soft kill” capabilities.

These machines have been developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by the BEL.

The system comprises a radar that comes with 360-degree coverage with detection of micro drones up to 4 km and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor which can detect micro-drones up to 2 km in select azimuth direction in clear weather. It has radio frequency (RF) detector with a detection capability of RF communication up to 3 km, radio frequency/Global Navigation Frequency Satellite System (RF/GNSS) jammer (jamming up to 3 km for RF/GNSS signals) and a laser-based hard kill system used to neutralise microdrones between 150 m to 1 km. The sensors are integrated through a command post.

Soft kill uses electronic warfare measures like jamming. “Under this, we can spoof enemy drones and misdirect them…” an official said.

Bengaluru, December 13, 2021: The Hon’ble Raksha Mantri, Shri Rajnath Singh, today virtually inaugurated “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, a seven-day exhibition at 75 locations pan India, including nine Units of BEL. The Hon’ble Raksha Mantri also launched the BEL Hall of Electronics at Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Bengaluru.

Students of local schools, colleges and professional institutions, and the general public at large are attending the exhibition being organised at BEL’s Units in Bengaluru, Ghaziabad, Panchkula, Kotdwara, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Machilipatnam and Chennai. The event provides a unique and one-of-its-kind opportunity for all to have a first-hand glimpse of the various iconic and marquee products manufactured by BEL for use by the country’s Defence forces. The exhibition is being conducted in strict adherence with all COVID-related protocols.

Films on the growth and evolution of professional electronics in India and BEL’s contributions to the nation’s capabilities in the field of strategic electronics and allied areas are being screened to the visitors.

“Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” is an initiative of the Government of India to commemorate 75 years of progressive India and its glorious history.

Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has developed tethered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) which are ideally suited for applications that require more endurance. It is designed to secure airbases which, the officials pointed out, could prevent attacks like the one that took place at Pathankot Air Force Station in 2016. The UAV system can be used for aerial reconnaissance and intelligence gathering as well.

The system consists of a hexacopter, electro-optic payload, auto winching system with tether cable and a ground control station. “It can fly up to 100 metres in height and has electro-optical infrared (EO/IR) sensors. It is capable of surveying up to 2 km of radius in daylight and 1 km at night. It can take image snapshots at any time during the flight and the UAV system is built in a way to withstand harsh environments,” a BEL official said.

Powered by wired cables, it can fly for six hours and it requires an hour for the motors to cool down. If the power gets abruptly disconnected, in-built batteries can continue to power it for another five minutes.

The system can be effectively used for various surveillance and monitoring applications by enhancing its capabilities with the displacement of the electro-optic payload, and has the advantage of long detection ranges. BEL engineers started working on developing the UAV nine months ago.

The defence PSU is also developing Hexacopter-20, a multi-rotor UAV. It is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV capable of performing collaborative missions with other multicopters. Hexacopter can be customised to take and activate desired payloads like HADR (Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief), Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and microphone depending on the applications required. It has a simple user interface, which can be handled by a single operator.

The UAV has been developed in association with a Bengaluru-based startup. Its capabilities were demonstrated to the Army and the Air Force, and BEL officials said they have expressed interest.

BEL organises Webinar on Role of Standards in Quality Improvement

The Bangalore Complex of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) conducted a virtual interactive webinar on ‘Quality Improvement in the Entire Supply Chain – Role of Standards in Quality Improvement’ for its vendors on December 1, 2021, to commemorate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

A total of 110 sub-contract vendors from across India, covering all the nine Units of BEL, attended the webinar. Heads of Quality from all the Units and SBUs of BEL were present along with the Corporate Quality team.

Mr Narasimha Kumar S V N, Sr DGM (Corporate Quality), welcomed the participants. Mrs Padma Sharma, Manager (Corporate Standards), conducted the training session. She brought out the Quality aspects regarding following and adopting the various national and international Standards, and emphasized the need for Standards in maintaining quality for processes and products being offered by various sub-contract vendors to BEL.

An interactive Question and Answer session with the vendors followed, which was conducted by Mr Surya Prasad V, Sr DGM (Corporate Quality).

Mr Sankar Subramanian R, GM (Quality), gave the concluding remarks.

Bengaluru, November 26, 2021: Mr Dinesh Kumar Batra, Director (Finance) & CFO, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), has bagged the Greentech Corporate Governance Professional of the Year Award 2021.

Mr Batra received the award at the Corporate Governance Summit organised by Greentech Foundation at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, on Friday, November 26, 2021.

Mr Dinesh Kumar Batra has, as Director (Finance) and CFO of the Navratna Defence PSU, contributed immensely to ensuring good corporate governance at BEL. He has taken initiatives for avoiding conflicts of interest through ethical and responsible leadership at all levels, and ensured meeting all statutory disclosures and compliances. As CFO, he has played an important role in the Audit, Nomination and Remuneration, Stakeholders Relationship and Board-level Risk Management Committees. Mr Batra has also ensured sound internal controls within the Company with proper internal checks by an in-house Internal Audit mechanism.

Mr Batra, who is on the Board of BEL Optronic Devices Limited (BELOP), Pune, and BEL-Thales Systems Limited (BTSL), Bengaluru, heads the Audit Committees of these two subsidiary companies of BEL, responsible for regulating, monitoring and reporting of Trading by Insider and Code of Practice and Procedure for Fair Disclosures of Price Sensitive Information.

As CFO, he ensures all disclosures and compliances as per Companies Act-2013 (as amended) and SEBI (LODR) 2015, Clause 17 to 27 and DPE Guidelines on Corporate Governance. In testimony to this, besides clean report from statutory and secretarial auditors, he has received the PSE Excellence award for Corporate Governance from the Indian Chamber of Commerce in 2020. Mr Batra’s wide and varied experience has helped him contribute meaningfully to key and strategic management decisions.

Photo caption: Mr Dinesh Kumar Batra, Director (Finance) & CFO, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), receving the Greentech Corporate Governance Professional of the Year Award 2021.

New Delhi, September 14, 2021: Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has been conferred the prestigious ‘Rajbhasha Kirti’ Award (Second Prize) under PSU category (‘C’ region) for the second consecutive year.

Mrs Anandi Ramalingam, Officiating CMD, BEL, received the awards on behalf of BEL from Union Ministers of State, Ministry of Home Affairs, Mr Ajay Kumar Mishra, and Mr Nisith Pramanik, at the annual awards ceremony held in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on the occasion of Hindi Day, today. The Hon’ble Home Minister, Mr Amit Shah, was present during the first half of the function. Mr Nityanand Rai, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs; Mr Manoj Kumar, Executive Director (National Marketing), BEL, and Mr Jagadish Chand, GM (Radar)/BEL-Ghaziabad, too, were present on the occasion.

This award has been instituted by the Department of Official Language (OL), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, to honour Central Government offices, banks and PSUs for excellence in implementation of the OL Policy and its usage in the three regions, A, B and C. The award carries a memento and a citation.

Mr Shrinivas Rao, Officer (OL)/BEL-Corporate Office, has been awarded the ‘Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar’ (Second Prize) under Non-Hindi category (2018-19) for his article “Indian Advertising World – Size, Evolution, Potential and Future”. This award is bestowed on authors of well-researched Hindi articles, published in the official magazines of Central Government firms.

Webinar for Vendors

Corporate Quality is conducting a Webinar to BEL Vendors  as per the Guidelines of MoD on account of of “Commemoration of 75 Years of India’s Independence“, “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”

Webinar Presentation (PPT) Details are follows :

Date :  07-09-2021 (Tuesday)

Time :  2 PM to 5 PM (90 minutes Presentation and 90 minutes interaction)

Target : Subcontract/Purchase Vendors of all Units/SBUs/CSGs

Mode : Internet Cisco Webex – Link

Topic of the Webinar : “Quality Improvement in the Entire Supply Chain”

Vendors are required to Register to participate in the Webinar.

Following is the link for Registration by the Vendors.

https://bel-india.webex.com/webappng/sites/bel-india/meeting/info/c51871198ad74148a94b5043726795c0

New Delhi, August 31, 2021: The Indian Navy has signed a Contract with Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Limited (BEL) for supply of the first indigenous, comprehensive Naval Anti Drone System (NADS) with both hard kill and soft kill capabilities.

The contract was signed by Indian Navy and BEL, today at New Delhi, in the presence of senior Naval officers and DRDO representatives. Indian Navy has provided consistent support and has played a lead role in the joint development of the anti drone system by DRDO and BEL.

NADS, developed by DRDO and manufactured by BEL, is the first indigenously developed anti-drone system to be inducted into the Indian Armed Forces. Multiple Units of BEL – Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Machilipatanam, and DRDO Labs, LRDE-Bangalore, DLRL and CHESS, Hyderabad, and IRDE-Dehradun, in close collaboration with Indian Navy, were involved in the making of this fully indegenious system, as part of the Atmanirbar Bharat initiative to counter drone threats of adversaries.

The Naval Anti Drone System can instantly detect and jam micro drones and uses a laser-based kill mechanism to terminate targets. The NADS will be an effective all- encompasing counter to the increased drone threat to strategic naval installations.

The NADS was first deployed to provide security cover for the Republic Day Parade this year and later during the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech at Red Fort. The system, which offers 360-degree coverage, was also deployed in Ahmedabad for the Modi-Trump roadshow.

The Naval Anti Drone System uses the help of Radar, Electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors and Radio Frequency (RF) detectors to detect and jam the micro drones. The DRDO’s RF/Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) detects the frequency which is being used by the controller and the signals are then jammed. The DRDO’s anti-drone technology system provides for both ‘soft kill’ and ‘hard kill’ options to the Indian Armed Forces to tackle fast-emerging aerial threats.

Both the static and mobile versions of NADS will be supplied to the Indian Navy within a short time from the signing of contract