The global award is the oldest and most recognised quality award in the world and is conferred upon companies with established processes of management for business operations.

The company, which had reported an impairment loss of Rs 157 crore in the second quarter of 2015 owing to its investments in joint ventures and subsidiaries, did not report any such loss during in the same period this year.

Ashok Leyland sold 12,533 units of its commercial vehicles in the month, compared to 9,803 units sold last year.

Vinod K Dasari, managing director, Ashok Leyland commented that exports is an import part of Ashok Leyland's strategic intent to globalise its product portfolio and derisk itself from supplying only into India.

Designed and engineered in India, for India, by Indians – the 100 per cent electric bus is a zero-emission, non-polluting vehicle, created specifically for Indian roads and passenger conditions, the company said in a statement.

"In defence, we have got tremendous growth. We have won 13 out of the last 15 tenders..We are today a Rs 500 crore company in defence and in five years we should be well above Rs 2,000 crore," Ashok Leyland MD Vinod Dasari told PTI.

The company had sold 11,544 units in August last year. Sales of heavy and medium commercial vehicles declined by 8 per cent to 8,201 units last month as against 8,903 units in the year-ago period, the company said in a statement.

Gopal Mahadevan, chief financial officer, ALL said while Kenya assembly plant was for both trucks and buses, that of Bangladesh was mainly for trucks. “We will be investing $5 million in Kenya and the same amount will be invested by our franchisee in Bangladesh. Both plants will have an annual capacity of 3,000 units to be scaled up based on the demand.”