New Delhi: Shikha Gupta has taken over as the new Director (Other Units) of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) on December 1. Prior to this, she was serving as General Manager at the same organisation. As General Manager, Gupta has looked after BEL's Strategic Planning Division, Satcom and Cellular Communication Systems strategic business unit (SBU) at BEL-Ghaziabad and Export Manufacturing SBU at BEL-Bangalore, before her elevation as Director.
Gupta was recommended for the post of Director (Other Units) of BEL by a Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) panel on April 25. She was selected from the list of six candidates, who were interviewed by the panel.
Gupta has over 34 years of experience in operations, research & development (R&D), business development, sales and life cycle support of many projects for the defence and paramilitary forces. She was involved in the execution and maintenance of land-based, ship-borne, submarine-borne and airborne megaprojects of the Army, Air Force and Navy across the length and breadth of the country, including tough terrains of Jammu & Kashmir and North East. She also piloted many indigenous and collaborative development projects. She has rich experience in hardware, software and system development.
She joined BEL's Ghaziabad unit as Probationary Engineer on February 1, 1985, after graduating from the University of Allahabad (AU) in Electronics & Communication. She worked on the core design of Digital Radio modules, Network Management System and S-Band Briefcase Terminal as well as system design of Multiple Satcom networks, Radio networks and CDMA cellular networks. Two projects led by her won the Raksha Mantri's Award for 'Indigenous Development'.
Gupta also headed the Marketing and Commercial division of systems and D&E of Network Centric systems at Ghaziabad. She facilitated many key C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence) projects such as Combat Management System, Combat Information System and Air Defence Control & Reporting System.
Gupta took charge as General Manager of the Strategic Planning Division at BEL's Corporate Office in 2015. During her two-year tenure as Head of Corporate Strategic Planning, she gave shape to 'BEL Vision 2030' to facilitate long-term planning for the company's growth. She initiated many strategic collaborations to address the business requirements of BEL. As Chairperson of the Corporate Risk Management Committee, she was instrumental in formulating the Risk Management Policy of BEL. She also steered the formation of the Defence Innovation Organisation, in partnership with Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL), to address Innovation by start-ups and MSEs, under the guidance of MoD.