Washington DC: One of India's largest information technology companies thinks it can adapt the software sector's on-site/offshore business model for the aerospace industry and leverage that growth to transform itself into a leading aircraft design and manufacturing house within a decade.
Mahindra Satyam's aerospace practice faces the long odds of any non-established player seeking to grow rapidly and become a sophisticated designer and maker of globally competitive commercial and military aircraft.
But the group, headed by Ramaseshan Satagopan, is not without certain advantages. Being part of the $15 billion Mahindra Group is helpful. The company has grown rapidly over 15 years by becoming a builder and designer of automobiles for the Indian market.Now, the Mahindra Group's chairman, Anand Mahindra, has started looking for new growth opportunities - describing himself, according to India's Business Standard newspaper, as "outrageously ambitious to see Indian aerospace take its rightful place in the world".
Underscoring that ambition, Satagopan tells Flight International: "My chairman feels the next wave [of growth in India] will likely be in aerospace".
29/01/13 Stephen Tribmle/Flight Global
