BHEL conferred the ‘SCOPE Meritorious Award for R&D and Innovation 2005-06’

BHEL conferred the ‘SCOPE Meritorious Award for R&D and Innovation 2005-06’

For commendable contribution in the area of Research and Development (R&D) and Innovation, Navratna engineering and manufacturing enterprise, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has been conferred the prestigious ‘SCOPE Meritorious Award for Research and Development and Innovation’, for the year 2005-06.

The award was presented by Mr. Sontosh Mohan Dev, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises to Mr. Ashok K. Puri, Chairman and Managing Director, BHEL, at a function held here today.

Instituted by the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), the ‘SCOPE Meritorious Awards’ are awarded to Public Sector Enterprises in specialised areas to encourage, recognise and reward the excellence achieved and contribution made by various PSEs in those areas.

An independent jury headed by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice P.N. Bhagwati unanimously selected BHEL for the coveted award.

R&D and technology development are of strategic importance to the company as it operates in a competitive environment where technology is a major factor. BHEL's R&D programme focuses on areas like state-of-the-art control & instrumentation systems; clean-coal technologies; improved T&D products/systems; high-efficiency silt-resistant hydro turbines and improved transportation systems, among others.

During fiscal 2006-07, BHEL recorded a turnover of Rs.27,200 Million - 14.5% of the company's total turnover, through commercialization of products and systems developed by way of in-house R&D efforts. This is the result of a constant thrust on developing new technologies and products, besides improving existing products and systems in terms of reliability, cost and quality through in-house R&D initiatives. In the same period, BHEL spent over Rs.2,520 Million on R&D efforts - nearly 67% more than the previous year and among the highest in India. In fact, the R&D spend has doubled and turnover from in-house developed products has tripled in the last two years.

In a major step aimed at consolidating its strengths in crucial technology areas, developing cutting-edge technologies and improving manufacturing processes, BHEL has established four world-class Centres of Excellence (COE) at its Corporate R&D Division. These centres have been set up to meet the diverse R&D needs of BHEL as well as requirements of other organisations like power stations, space centres, defence establishments and vital infrastructural enterprises.

BHEL has crafted a ‘Strategic Plan 2012’ for ensuring sustained profitable growth and to enable the company to achieve a turnover of US$10 billion by 2011-12. As a part of this, the engineering and technology character of the organization shall also be enhanced with focus on innovation and R&D, where the R&D spend will be increased by at least four times from the current levels.