Kaipa Venkata Suresh Kumar took charge as Director (Marketing) of Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) on June 16, 2023. He was serving as the General Manager of BEL's Product Development & Innovation Center (PD&IC) in Bengaluru before his elevation.

A post-graduate in Electronics & Communications engineering, Suresh Kumar joined BEL in May 1989 as a Probationary Engineer. An accomplished engineer, he has worked on multiple technologies at multiple Units of BEL, held key corporate positions, including that of Chief Indigenisation Officer, BEL. In an eventful career spanning 34 years, he has gained rich experience in diverse technology areas dealing with all major customer segments, and played a pivotal role in driving business development through R&D.

Suresh Kumar is a recipient of the prestigious Raksha Mantri's Excellence Award. Under his able tutelage, many patents / copy rights have been created by his teams.

He has worked in all phases of product development life-cycle, including conceptualisation, design, development, qualification, installation and commissioning, field trials and induction of systems. He has in-depth knowledge and understanding of the end user's needs / requirements, and the means to meet them.

During his tenure as GM (PD&IC), he guided a team of 500 engineers for in-house development of technology modules in 16 verticals, which are used across BEL. He also drove the IP generation and skill enhancement initiative at PD&IC. Prior to this assignment, Suresh Kumar held the position of General Manager (Technology Planning) at BEL's Corporate Office, where he spearheaded planning and execution of all R&D activities across the company, which resulted in a large number of R&D projects that have since been successfully commercialised.

His efforts and contributions, during the period 2017-2019, resulted in the induction of highly complex and state-of-the-art airborne EW Systems onto the fighter aircraft of IAF, paving the way for receipt of orders worth 3,000 Cr.

Suresh Kumar was instrumental in realising an above 90 Mn USD export order from Airbus for the supply of EW Suite, the single largest export order received by BEL. He also introduced new products and generated future business opportunities worth about 4,000 Cr.

Between 2014 and 2017, he successfully led teams for the development and induction of a very large number of Electro-Optic products / systems into the Indian Army and Paramilitary Forces, which in turn have fetched BEL a business of about 5,000 Cr. He also aggressively pursued indigenisation efforts and saved about 300 Cr FE.

Prior to 2014, he had developed and inducted many EW systems into the helicopters and aircraft of Indian Navy and IAF. During the same period, his efforts have resulted in the receipt of about 1,000 Cr order from IAF on nomination basis for setting up the world's most comprehensive EW Test Range in India.

Since 2021, he has been serving as the Chief Indigenisation Officer of BEL and has made significant contributions to the Government's 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan'. BEL has saved more than 1,000 Cr FE in the last two years through indigenisation efforts. The company has also contributed over 100 products to the Positive Indigenisation lists promulgated by the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. A majority of these products are under development through the Make II route.