Space Craftsmen
Abreakthrough in Indian innovation and technology sits atop a structure as tall as a 15-storey building in Byalalu village outside Bengaluru: Deep Space Network (DSN) antennae capable of communicating with Indian spacecraft over one million kilometres away. The control systems that steer this 400-tonne antennae towards the Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan spacecraft were provided by Bengaluru-based SLN Technologies. “It marks the role we’ve played in ISRO’s successful first Moon and Mars missions,” says M. Anil Kumar, who founded the company in 1995 with partner and comanaging director D.R. Subramanyam. The engineering classmates leveraged their skills as designers to create solutions for space and defence applications. Their first order was a simple, customised remote monitoring device for the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in 1997. The breakout moment came the next year when the United States imposed sanctions on Indian defence and space entities following the Pokhran nuclear tests, compelling ISRO and DRDO to look for indigenous suppliers for their projects. In 2004, SLN Technologies bagged orders to supply Solid State Flight Data Recorders or ‘black boxes’ for Su-30 MKI fighter jets, antennae control systems for the IAF’s tactical control radar and software integration rigs for the Tejas light combat aircraft and Jaguar fighter-bomber. Kumar says the government’s Make in India initiative has given them the impetus to focus on indigenisation. “We set targets to reduce imported components; in some cases, we brought it down from 85 per cent to 30 per cent,” he says. Now, the company has set its sights on becoming a major player in the defence, space and aerospace segment.
THE WAY FORWARD “Whatever we earn, we put back into our company. Our aim is to hit Rs 100 crore in revenue by 2020”