Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), a defence and heavy engineering manufacturer, has signed an agreement with the Indian Navy.

What Happened: The two institutions inked a deal aimed at strengthening bilateral collaboration for the indigenous design, development, manufacturing and testing support of essential marine equipment systems.

The agreement was officially signed at the Naval headquarters in New Delhi by Rear Admiral K Srinivas, assistant chief of material (Dockyard and Refit) of the Indian Navy, and Ajit Kumar Srivastav, director of defence at BEML.

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"Aligned with the Government of India's Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative, the partnership aims to strengthen self-reliance in defence production and reduce dependence on foreign OEMs," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

"BEML is committed to delivering advanced, cost-effective, and reliable solutions to the Indian Navy. We are confident that our combined efforts will lead to significant advancements in indigenous marine technology," Shantanu Roy, chairman and managing director at BEML said.

On Tuesday, BEML also signed an agreement with Malaysia's SMH Rail to supply rolling stock for Indian railways, during Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's state visit to India. Both countries also held bilateral discussions on strengthening defence and security partnership.

Separately, the Ministry of Defence also said that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to embark on an official visit to the United States from August 23 to 26 at the invitation of the U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. Singh will engage in a bilateral meeting with Austin and will also meet Jake Sullivan, the U.S. assistant to the president for National Security Affairs.

Price Action: Shares of BEML were up 2.9% to trade at ₹3,878.10 on Wednesday afternoon.

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