The Hon’ble Raksha Mantri, Rajnath Singh, inaugurated the 7th edition of ‘Engineers Conclave’ (EC-2019), being organised by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), in association with Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), from September 19-21, 2019, at the Bharat Electronics Academy for Excellence (BAE), Bengaluru.
Dr G Satheesh Reddy, secretary DD R&D, & chairman, DRDO; Dr Sanak Mishra, president, INAE; Gowtama MV, CMD, BEL; Mahesh V, director (R&D), BEL; VVR Sastry, FNAE & former CMD, BEL; current and former directors and CMDs of BEL, CVO, BEL, and other dignitaries from DRDO, ISRO, DPSUs, academia, and industries, both public and private, were present at the inaugural function.
Rajnath Singh reiterated the government’s commitment to reaching Digital India Connectivity to remote villages of India. He added that the development of critical and cutting-edge technologies in defence would help save foreign exchange, which can be used for other development activities of the country.
The Engineers Conclave is an annual event aimed at bringing together engineers from across the country to identify, discuss and deliberate upon issues of national importance and arrive at solutions with appropriate engineering interventions. Actionable recommendations based on the deliberations of the Engineers Conclave carried out so far are actively progressed by INAE with the Government departments/agencies concerned.
This year’s conclave is based on two themes: “Defence Technology & Innovation” and “Transformation of Rural India Using Digital Technologies”. Eminent speakers representing the Government, industry, research institutions and academia are delivering talks at the conclave on topics of both current and futuristic engineering interest. The programme also features plenary talks, technical sessions, panel discussions and interactive sessions.
The Minister also inaugurated BEL’s Product Development & Innovation Centre (PD&IC) in Bengaluru on the occasion. BEL has created the PD&IC with the vision of establishing a world-class R&D facility, with an investment of about Rs 220 crores.
He said the new centre would contribute to the ‘Make in India’ initiative through indigenisation efforts aimed at self-reliance. The PD&IC is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and resources to design, develop, prototype and generate manufacturing documents for systems and sub-systems, which can be marketed as standalone products or used in the development of larger systems or system-of-systems by the Strategic Business Units/Units of BEL.
The PD&IC is envisaged to lay emphasis on in-house development of products which can be bench-marked with the best in the world. It will also focus on IPR creation in strategic areas, reducing external dependence for critical subsystems, and standardisation of subsystems. The centre will contribute to the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government of India. The centre will provide a single window interface for DRDOs and other R&D houses, and strengthen ToT processes and collaborative design efforts through involvement of startups and MSMEs.
Centers of Excellence (COEs) have already been created in PD&IC in the areas of Communication, Electro-Optics & Lasers, and Radar & Weapon Systems. Besides, Innovation centres have also been established in RF & Microwaves, Embedded & Computational Systems, Navigation & Stabilisation Systems, Crypto Solutions, Engineering solutions, Sonar systems, Power Electronics & Energy Systems. The centre has been constructed on a 26-acre land with 45,000 sq m of floor space, which can house about 750 engineers.
The Hon’ble Raksha Mantri unveiled the High Power Transmitter for New Generation Missile (Akash-NG) RF Seeker, designed by Microwave Tube Research & Development Center (MTRDC), a DRDO lab, and concurrently developed along with BEL, based on a production order from the Research Centre Imarat (RCI).
The Travelling-wave Tube (TWT) based Transmitter, along with other electronics, is a Make-in-India product and one of the success stories for concurrent engineering.