NEW DELHI: Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (Broadcast) has presented a dividend cheque of Rs. 10.236 million to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.

The cheque was presented by BECIL chairman & managing director Harkesh Gupta for the financial year ending 31 March 2011. Those present on the occasion were I&B Secretary Uday Kumar Varma, and Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Arvind Kumar.

The Minister said the organisation was playing a critical role in facilitating the infrastructure facilities for different projects in the broadcasting sector. She reiterated that the organisation would have to strive to achieve higher goals and deliverables as a consultancy firm and turnkey solution provider in the future.

BECIL, a Government of India Enterprise under the administrative control of the Ministry with all its shares owned by the Government, has been a profit making outfit ever since its formation in 1995 and has been consistently paying dividend to the government on the equity employed. It is a "Mini Ratna" and ISO Certified Company.

During the Financial Year 2010-11, the turnover of the company has touched an all time high of Rs1.3156 billion and has earned a profit of Rs 82.8 million. The turnover as compared to last year has increased 330 per cent and profit by 204 per cent. The dividend paid today is 75 per cent of the paid up equity.

BECIL is a premier consultancy and turnkey solution provider in the specialised field of broadcast engineering. It has many firsts to its credit like establishment of first teleport in India, first to establish all digital private FM broadcasting station at Bangalore, first to set-up multi channel FM transmission stations in India combining up to seven FM channels, first to design and establish HDTV studio set-up for the Presidential Secretariat and Lok Sabha TV among others.

In the current year, the company is executing major projects worth over Rs.1.2 billion, some of which are:

SITC of VSAT Monitoring and Analysis System (for M/s Antrix Corporation) – Rs. 300.2 million

SITC of VSAT Monitoring System (for DRL Hyderabad) – Rs. 249.2 million

Supply of 1000 kW MW Superpower Transmitter (AIR Chinsurah) – Rs. 271.5 million

SITC of Broadcast Equipment (for Consortium of Educational Consultants) – Rs. 88.2 million

Upgradation of TV Studios (for Jamia Millia Islamia) – Rs. 69.8 million.

Setting up of HDTV Studios for National Institute of Open Schooling- Rs. 47.2 million

SITC of DTT Antenna System and Strengthening of Tower at 15 sites (for Doordarshan)-Rs. 46.5 million.