The Indian industrial conglomerate Larsen & Toubro said it is betting on aerospace as a potential growth engine, including launch vehicle and satellite manufacturing, as the country cuts reliance on imports and boosts private participation.

L&T, considered a bellwether for India's infrastructure spending because of how many industries its work touches, is the country's largest private-sector defense manufacturer by revenue; its Precision Engineering and Systems unit posted revenue of USD 548.3 million in the 2024 fiscal year, up 41 per cent from the previous year.

At its factory in Coimbatore, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, L&T is assembling the country's first privately built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), a mainstay of ISRO's launch programme, through a consortium with Hindustan Aeronautics. It is also building equipment for ISRO's other deep space exploration programs.

The company hopes to scale up its space business amid India's privatisation push, which has eased foreign investment limits and allocated a larger share of procurement budgets away from state-run enterprises