Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has been ranked ninth most-innovative company in the world by US business magazine Forbes, a company statement said. The PSU firm is the only Indian engineering company on the list and ranked much higher than similar multinational equipment suppliers.

The company spends over 2.3 per cent of its turnover on innovation. It had recorded 31 per cent growth in its intellectual capital in 2010-11. It filed 303 patents and copyrights during the year, taking its intellectual capital to 1,438 patents and copyrights, the statement said.

During 2010-11, the company invested an all-time high of 1,005 crore on R&D programmes—21 per cent more than the previous year. Commercialisation of products and systems developed by way of inhouse research contributed around 18 per cent to the company's total turnover of 43,337 crore in 2010-11.