Imagine stepping into an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOL, that lifts you into the skies and takes you directly to your destination. This futuristic vision is being coded, tested, and refined by engineers in India today. These battery-powered flying vehicles, which combine the vertical mobility of helicopters with the efficiency of aeroplanes, are seen as one of the most ambitious shifts in urban mobility since the invention of the car.
At the heart of this effort is Alten India, the Indian arm of French multinational Alten, which provides engineering, IT, consulting, R&D, and digital transformation services across industries. From just 80 employees in 2008, Alten India has grown to a workforce of 9,000.
“The eVTOL industry or the sustainable flying industry has seen a lot of investments, ups and downs in Europe,” said Balaji Viswanathan, CEO of Alten India. “Some of the big companies which were founded to do eVTOLs have gone bankrupt because there was not enough funding. But the US is doing reasonably well. We are proud to say that we are working with almost all the eVTOL companies.”
Alten India’s engineers in Bengaluru and Aurangabad are addressing some of the toughest challenges in autonomous flight, from sustainability and navigation systems to crash detection units. “In non-human operated eVTOLs, a big challenge is to make sure that data is not compromised if a crash occurs. How do you make sure that the data is stored similar to how black boxes operate in traditional aircraft? We do that work here,” Viswanathan explained.
While eVTOLs capture attention, automotive engineering remains Alten India’s largest focus, contributing about 45 per cent of its business. Another 30 per cent comes from aerospace and avionics, with the remainder spanning industrial manufacturing, heavy engineering, and machinery. The company has worked with leading global automotive brands including Renault, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Volvo.
The team’s expertise extends to defence as well. “We are working with the Navy on GPS positioning, object detection, identifying which is dangerous, which is not,” Viswanathan said. From seabed obstacles to minesweepers, their work ensures safer navigation using sonar-based decision-making systems.
With contributions across air, land, and sea, Indian engineers are cementing their place at the centre of global innovation in mobility and navigation.
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