New Delhi. Bharat Dynamics CMD Commodore Siddharth Mishra (Retd) has lauded the effort of government announcing reforms in defence production as part of Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus under “Atmanirbhar Bharat” package.
India’s only missile manufacturing company Bharat Dynamics makes the surface to air missiles, anti-tank guided missiles, torpedoes and underwater weapons among other systems and plans to make country’s defence sector Atmanirbhar (self-reliant).
Mishra praised the government’s efforts for policy changes within the defence sector. “The government has been providing major support,” he said.
Mishra said in missile systems India shall be Atmanirbhar in four years and the Defence Ministry had approved Astra Missile for exports. “We have been working on global reach and have two contracts for underwater weapons. We are eyeing export opportunities for Akash Missile. We plan to use the foreign office for export to various countries. We have signed an MoU with Russia for strategic parts.”
The company is eyeing the European market for exporting defence equipment. The company will likely see ‘Astra’- the first Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Air-to-Air Missile order by the end of the year, Mishra said.
BDL recently signed license agreement and Transfer of Technology (ToT) with DRDO for Akash Missile Weapon System (Indian Army Variant). The company also signed MoU with IIT Hyderabad to upgrade its equipment and said the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) is developing several indigenous missiles.
The company witnessed healthy execution in Q4 2019-20 as revenues grew 64 per cent and operating profits jumped smartly as margins expanded. While the pandemic has disrupted some of its operations, the order book has been flat at the end FY20 at around Rs 7,400 crore. Despite this the management is confident of growth in the order value and financials. “We expect an order value of Rs 2,500 crore in the next four to five years. We expect to double our revenue from operations in the next three to four years, said Mishra.
