India's BEL posts record turnover

Indian company Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has said it achieved record-high sales in fiscal year 2020–21 despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The partly state-owned company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in early April that its provisional and unaudited turnover for the year reached INR135 billion (USD1.84 billion): a year-on-year increase of 7%.

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), which produces radar systems for India’s Akash surface-to-air missile, has announced record turnover of USD1.84 billion for fiscal year 2020-21. (Via PIB)

BEL said that as of 1 April its order book had grown to INR530 billion, including orders worth INR150 billion secured during the previous 12 months. Major orders feature software-defined radios and communication equipment, radars, sonars, torpedo decoy systems, electronic warfare systems, and networking products, the company said.

BEL said major orders in 2020–21 were also received for ventilators, which the company has been producing in response to the pandemic.

The company added that the value of its exports reached about USD50 million in 2020–21 through sales of products including surveillance systems, radios, identification systems, and components and spare parts.

BEL’s chairman and managing director M V Gowtama said the company’s strategy for further growth was aligned with India’s self-reliance targets and associated efforts to “focus on indigenisation and outsourcing to domestic industry… thus minimising import dependency”.

BEL, in which the government owns 51%, did not disclose its profits for the year.