Encouraged by the growth prospects of security solution business, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) has envisaged increasing its turnover to R5,000 crore by 2020 from the present R1,328 crore. The company is investing in R&D and also forging technological tie-ups to tap the fast-growing market.
The company plans to invest about R400 crore in technological development and facilities for 10 major projects which are expected to be completed by 2017-18.
ECIL, a PSU under the administrative control of the department of atomic energy, is engaged in design, development, manufacture, supply and life cycle support of strategic electronic equipment like command, control, computer, communication and intelligent systems, check-out systems, inertial navigation systems, training simulators for missile and other weapon support systems. It is a key technology partner to various defence establishments like DRDO.
YS Mayya, CMD, ECIL, who has supervised development and deployment of real-time networks and distributed systems in nuclear facilities, is quite bullish about the market prospects for security systems after the recent contract bagged from the Commonwealth Games for supply, installation, testing and integrated security systems. ?There are huge opportunities in the domestic market for design know-how in the country. Sensing these opportunities, we are also in talks with foreign companies setting up projects in India for designing and manufacturing,? he said.
?Our major thrust is to develop high-speed network products with indigenous content. In the process, our R&D vision includes developing our own products with Indian IP and position the company as a total solution provider in electronics,? he added. Besides, ECIL is also increasing value addition and market share in defence and security sectors through increased localisation. The order book of ECIL is R2,000 crore as of January 2012, up from R1,490 crore at the beginning of 2010-11. However, it is still bullish on bigger projects and expects to receive orders for radiological detector equipment supply for major ports, surveillance system for Delhi markets, artillery fuzes for nuclear power plants and other technologies for missile programs.
In the process of innovation, Mayya is also cautions on brand tags such as ?Made in India? and ?Indian make?. ?It is of immense importance to increase innovation among entrepreneurs and bring in policy that would revive designing and product know-how,? he feels.
Being a supplier of strategic electronic equipment to sectors like nuclear, defence, security, aerospace and eGovernance, ECIL has launched a data digitisation and biometric capture campaign as part of the National Population Registry project. It has created manufacturing facility in Tirupati for rolling out identity card project. It has received a letter of intent (LoI) for implementing a R300 crore- socio-economic caste census project.
ECIL?s major projects include a Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment (MACE) Telescope, which is being set up at Hanle in Ladakh region to study and unravel certain mysteries of universe. The novel feature of this telescope is the design of the integrated imaging camera and all the signal processing and data acquisition electronics. When fully operational, MACE will be on the Indian Astronomical Observatory.
In yet another initiative, ECIL has developed radiation monitors to watch and control illicit movement of radio active substances across various seaports and airports. It is also developing a new series of programmable logic controllers targeted to critical applications where security is a concern. ECIL?s most significant achievement is the delivery of integrated security system for Commonwealth Games.
It has entered into a licensing agreement with IIT-Bombay to manufacture high-speed transport routers developed by the Gigabit Networking Laboratory at IIT Bombay. These routers promise to set new price and performance benchmarks in an industry dominated by overseas suppliers. With built-in security features and an Indian design, this development is significant in the context of apprehensions expressed by experts about the vulnerabilities posed by ?black box? products, populating the information highways which carry vital and strategic data. With the national data infrastructure set to grow many fold with gigabit pipes slated to enter villages, this development fills a vital gap in the indigenous technology fabric.
Meanwhile, ECIL is also looking to increase its profile in medical electronics and hopes to bring in a product pipeline in the next five years. Soon, ECIL will be wearing a new hat through indigenisation.