Bengaluru, May 2, 2025: Hari Kumar R took charge as Director (R&D) of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) today. He was serving as General Manager (Technology Planning) prior to being elevated to the Board.
Hari Kumar joined BEL on May 1, 1989, as a Probationary Engineer after completing his B. Tech. (Electronics & Communication) from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
In a career spanning over three and a half decades, he has primarily been in Development and Engineering (D&E), supporting manufacturing activities at BEL with high-quality designs and engineering documentation.
He was a part of the teams that developed India’s first 65-Kelvin C-band and Extended-C-band Low Noise Amplifiers for Satcom earth stations of VSNL & Doordarshan. His teams also were the first to develop transmitters based on Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology for both communications & radar applications along with C-Band Quad Transmit-Receive (T/R) Modules for phased array radars and solid-state replacements for microwave tube amplifiers.
During the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020, he led teams which got BEL certified to the ISO 13485:2016 Medical Standard in 45 days, and BEL’s ICU Ventilator System third-party evaluated, before successfully completing the Pre Dispatch Inspection of 30,000 Ventilator Systems (comprising 1.5 Lakh sub-systems) in 3 ½ months.
During 2020-22, he also played a key role in the turnaround of Components SBU, including speeding up procurement and ramping up production across multiple product groups. As GM (Technology Planning), he focussed on overseeing and speeding up R&D processes and projects.
His teams have filed multiple patent applications and won multiple BEL R&D Awards, plus SODET and Raksha Mantri Awards. A team player —with varied experience in D&E, ToT absorption, knowledge management, production & procurement — he believes that every function needs to be valued and nurtured for BEL to achieve its goals. He attributes all his learning, performance and growth to exceptionally committed past and present seniors and colleagues.
