Subrata Biswas, 56, has assumed charge as director (engineering, research & development) of the Maharatna Public Sector engineering and manufacturing enterprise. This is a board-level appointment at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL).

Prior to this, he was posted at BHEL’s Corporate Office as Executive Director (Corporate Engineering & Product Development), handling all R&D projects of the company and heading the team for company-wide implementation of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) and Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) projects.

Biswas is an electronics engineer from BHU-IT (now IIT-Varanasi), and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. Biswas has 33 years of diversified and versatile professional experience through working in major R&D segments of BHEL. He has handled a variety of assignments in strategic as well as operational areas in various capacities. He was elevated to the position of Executive Director in July, 2014. Mr. Biswas was involved in the formulation and finalisation of BHEL’s R&D Policy in 2013 and is presently overseeing its implementation at all units/divisions of the company.

Biswas has been handling the national mission project for the development of advanced ultra super critical (AUSC) technology for future generation power plants and is the nodal point for BHEL with Government of India, NTPC and IGCAR.

Biswas has spearheaded the development of products like automated guided vehicle; flexible manufacturing system for automation in production shop floor; automated storage and retrieval system (13 systems installed at major BHEL units and 26 systems at defence depot, Kanpur); robotic welding systems for manufacturing of compressor components. RFID and GPS based systems for material tracking at units and sites; tracking system for Solar PV arrays; fuel cells, etc.

Under his stewardship, more than 30 patents/copyrights have been applied for, and over 40 technical papers have been published/presented at national/international journals and conferences. Mr. Biswas has the unique experience of working on the shopfloors at all manufacturing divisions of BHEL for implementation of in-house developed products and processes for improving productivity and safety of workforce.