NEW DELHI: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh On Wednesday announced the grant of "Miniratna" status (Category-1) for Central Electronics Limited (CEL) at its Golden Jubilee celebration at the Ghaziabad campus. He congratulated team CEL on completing 50 glorious years in the nation's service and now celebrating their Golden Jubilee on 26th June this year.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Singh said “We feel proud that the Golden Jubilee Celebrations are being graced by the Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar and his guidance and motivation will persuade us to contribute more to the betterment of the country. Adding further the Science and Technology Minister said, “50 years of dedication, perseverance, and success is a testament to the hard work, commitment, and vision which propelled this journey of excellence.”

Dr Singh, while highlighting CEL’s performance, mentioned that over the last few years, especially in the last five years, CEL's financial stability, profitability, and operational excellence have touched new heights. CEL’s performance in terms of the numbers in turnover, net worth, reserves, net profit, etc. is also remarkable.

The Minister shared that CEL has transformed from a loss-making PSU to a dividend-paying PSU and this is the 3rd consecutive year that CEL has paid dividends, that too at an increasing rate, to the Government of India. He also highlighted that celebrating 50 years with attaining a net profit of approx. Rs 58 crore is commendable.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of Amrit kaal he said, our aim is to increase indigenization of technology and boost manufacturing by capacity building, skill development. He lauded CEL’s contributions in the fields of defence, railway, security, surveillance and solar energy shows its vital role in promoting indigenous technologies and manufacturing capabilities. He said “Rolling out production of Smart Boards which shall not only diversify CEL’s product portfolio but also significantly impact implementation of smart education in schools in the country.”

Dr Singh expressed his satisfaction over the new initiatives taken by the CEL Management to strengthen employee engagement which led to outstanding performance over the last few years and an all-time high achievement in the last financial year. The minister affirmed that CEL has ticked the right boxes of performance parameters for the grant of higher status of Miniratna (Category-1).

The Cabinet Minister of Uttar Pradesh Sunil Kumar Sharma, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR) Director General Dr N Kalaiselvi, CEL's Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Chetan Jain along with senior officials of Government of India were also present for the programme.