BHEL ninth on Forbes' most innovative list

NEW DELHI: State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has been ranked ninth most innovative company in the world by US business magazine Forbes, the company said in a statement. Bharat Heavy Electricals is the only Indian engineering company on the list and ranked much higher than similar multinational equipment suppliers.

The company spends over 2.3% of its turnover on innovation. It had recorded 31% growth in its intellectual capital in 2010-11. It filed 303 patents and copyrights during the year. Its intellectual capital has gone up to 1,438 patents and copyrights, the statement said.

During 2010-11, the company invested an all-time high Rs 1,005 crore on research and development programmes - 21% higher than the previous year. Commercialisation of products and systems developed by way of in-house research contributed around 18% to the company’s total turnover of Rs 43,337 Crore in 2010-11.

Bharat Heavy Electricals is also the only Indian public sector enterprise figuring in ‘The Global Innovation 1000’ of Booz & Co, a list of 1,000 publicly-traded companies which are the biggest spenders on research and development activities in the world.

Bharat Heavy Electricals has also won the coveted CII-Thompson Reuters Innovation Award 2010 in the ‘hi-tech corporate’ category. In addition, the Economic Times Intelligence Group has ranked BHEL number one in terms of filing patents in India.