Secure, custom-made CDMA phone sets developed by Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), are undergoing trials with the Army. The phones, without camera, have in-built safety features and may be deployed in a year or two across the Army’s various units, BEL’s Chairman and Managing Director S.K. Sharma told an annual news conference on Wednesday.
With work initiated more than a year ago, the handsets are said to replace imported ones that are not encrypted and are vulnerable to eavesdropping by unauthorised people. The Army’s request for information mentions base transmission stations to be set up in three north-eastern stations. The Navy is also said to be a potential customer.
The indigenous version enables high data transmission and its evaluation is in an advanced stage, said Ajit T. Kalghatagi, Director (R&D), adding BEL was geared up to manufacturing them in large numbers.
The phone sets are made at the Ghaziabad unit of BEL.
On the defence front, Mr. Sharma said the focus was on indigenisation in radars, electronic warfare devices, avionics, network communication or C4i. Telecommunication was also an important initiative in non-defence business. BEL was pursuing civil sector business areas such as solar energy, e-governance and smart cards besides inland security that falls outside the purview Ministry of Defence.
It planned to generate 50 MW of solar power along with other PSUs under the national solar scheme over three-to-five years and would invest Rs.300 crore in the projects, Mr. Sharma said.
The defence electronics major makes electronics, communication, radars and imaging hardware for the three Armed Forces.
It has declared an audited 2014-15 net profit of Rs.1,167 crore and a turnover of Rs.6,695 crore. For the fourth quarter, the net profit and the turnover were Rs.722 crore and Rs.3,067 crore respectively.
