Navaratna PSU Bharat Electronics (BEL), India's leading Defence electronics company, and Rolta India, a leading provider of innovative IT solutions for many vertical segments,  announced that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has selected the exclusive consortium of BEL and Rolta India as a Development Agency for the Battlefield Management System (BMS) project worth over Rs 500 billion. The BMS project, categorised as a ''Make'' programme under the DPP, will be one of the largest solutions to be indigenously manufactured for the Indian Defence.

This prestigious project is meant to deliver command and control capabilities to the fighting echelons, operating at the forward edge of the Tactical Battle Area at the Battalion and Combat Group levels. BMS is a situational awareness and visualisation system that aims to optimise the operational effectiveness of tactical units.

BEL has been proactively working on battlefield management systems. The company has established the test bed of BMS for continuous evaluation and implementation of user requirements. Having worked on several Tactical Command, Control, Communications & Intelligence (Tac C3I) systems of the Indian Army, in association with DRDO, BEL has the unique capability of developing and integrating Tac C3I systems and will lead the consortium.

P C Jain, director (marketing), BEL, said, ''We are pleased that the time and effort which we have proactively invested in working on this project is finally paying dividends. The consortium of BEL and Rolta is fully geared up to take on the challenge of development of the Battlefield Management System for our Defence forces. We also aim to maximize the indigenous content through in-house development of various sub-systems.''

''It is indeed a privilege for us to be part of this prestigious ''Make India'' programme for the Indian Defence,'' said K K Singh, chairman and managing director, Rolta India. ''We are also very excited to be associated with BEL, a leader in Defence electronics. The selection of Rolta is a strong vindication of our strategy to upfront invest in and build word-class IP indigenously. This IP has been indigenously developed by leveraging our deep domain knowledge of C2ISR (Command, Control, Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) and is already in wide use across various formations of the Indian Army,'' he added.

Shares of the Bharat Electronics gained 4.69%, to trade at Rs 3,822 while Rolta India rallied 15.34%, to trade at Rs 172.20 at the BSE (11.35 a.m., Friday).