Interview | Chairman and managing director, Bharat Electronics Ltd, M.V. Gowtama

While CRL has built the Technology Demonstrator for first responder robots for land forces, do you have plans for robots for all the three services?

BEL has plans and roadmaps for robots for all the three services. From nano drones to combat UAVs, the unmanned aerial vehicles can act as a first responder robot for different applications. The autonomous amphibious and underwater robots are planned for future endeavours.

Considering the defence ministry has not given out its strategy for AI, which should ideally be part of the national strategy articulated by NITI Aayog, what constraints in terms of clearly defined roadmap, financial allocations, and collaborations with friendly foreign companies are being felt by BEL?

BEL being a Navratna DPSU that meets the defence forces’ requirements, venturing into collaborations will help reap immense benefits. Keeping pace with the changing environment and state-of-the-art technology has always been BEL’s strategy.

Towards this, BEL is actively collaborating with several academic i