By Narendra Puppala

Bengaluru, Feb 16 (IANS): Amid all the hustle and bustle of Aero India 2023, a small group of startups and MSMEs from Karnataka is silently making its mark, attracting attention for their innovative range of products. In all, 24 organisations have set up shop in the Karnataka Udyog Mitra stall at the 14th edition of India's own international air show.

As startups and MSME go, these handful of entrepreneurs in the aerospace sector may not enjoy the recognition and brand recall of their global and corporate neighbours at Aero India 2023.

However, these homespun companies are more than making up with the array of exciting products they have developed or creating.

Some of them like NopoNano Technologies, are into producing single-walled carbon nanotubes with wide-ranging applications in aerospace are being manufactured in Bengaluru.

With applications ranging from coatings for aircraft, to batteries and in semiconductors, these nanotubes are attracting queries from visitors to Aero India.

"We work on single-walled carbon nanotubes. This is an advanced material that will create the future of aircraft and spacecraft. This material we have created in Karnataka, in Bangalore and this material is incredibly small. It's about one lakh times smaller than a hair strand and is manufactured to an atomic accuracy in Electronic City," said Gadadhar Reddy, Founder, NopoNano Technologies, an aerospace startup in Bengaluru.

For some of the Karnataka entrepreneurs at Aero India 2023, the sky is literally not the limit anymore. Apart from housing the headquarters of the nation's space programme, Bengaluru is home to several defence organisations and public sector units. Local MSMEs have leveraged on their technical and scientific expertise to become part of several exciting projects on land, at sea, in the air, and beyond - in space.

For instance, Bengaluru-based Aidin Technologies Pvt Ltd, a 15-year old MSME has distinguished itself by designing and developing cutting edge products for ISRO, and BE among others. Their success story includes the design and development of a space RF product subsystem for all the satellites and also the data link modem which is used for aerial target vehicles or UAVs. But that's not all, says Harish, CMD of Audin Technologies.

"We are also part of the Indian human space flight programme. We have got the contract for executing the avionics interphase and the bio-based electronics package which will be used to monitor the health parameters of the astronauts when they go up in space."

So, what makes these relatively small enterprises tick in such a highly competitive sector? Essentially the thriving entrepreneurial landscape, the proximity to potential clients in the form of space, aerospace, and defence establishments, and finally the support of the Karnataka state government, say the homegrown entrepreneurs at Aero India 2023.