How it started
History
Bharat Electronics Limited was founded in Bangalore, Karnataka, India in 1954.
Starting with the manufacture of a few communication equipment in 1956, BEL started manufacturing receiving valves in 1961, germanium semiconductors in 1962, and radio transmitters for All India Radio in 1964 with help from the Soviet Union.
In 1966, BEL set up a radar manufacturing facility for the army and in-house R&D. In 1967, BEL began manufacturing transmitting tubes, silicon devices, and integrated circuits. The PCB manufacturing facility was established in 1968.
In 1970, BEL started making black & white TV picture tubes, X-ray tubes, and microwave tubes. In 1971, BEL set up facilities for the manufacture of integrated circuits and hybrid microcircuits. In 1972, BEL established manufacturing facilities for TV transmitters for Doordarshan. In 1973, BEL began manufacturing frigate radars for the navy.
Under the government's policy of decentralisation and due to strategic reasons, BEL set up new units at different locations across the country. The second unit of BEL was set up at Ghaziabad in 1974 to manufacture radars and Tropo communication equipment for the Indian Air Force. The third unit was established at Pune in 1979 to manufacture image converters and image intensifier tubes.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bharat Electronics, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2