In June 2001, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) has signed an agreement for worldwide marketing of ADA developed composites software AUTOLAY. This move placed ADA in a prominent position as one of the key technology players in the world CAD/CAM scenario alongside IBM's CATIA Composites, Unigraphics' PACKS and Vistagy's FiberSIM, all from USA, that provide capability to address composites requirements.  Further, the choice of AUTOLAY software by Airbus industries for its prestigious 600-seat passenger aircraft A 380, branded the ADA software by as best-in- class. This is a significant achievement considering that for the first time a software product of such technical excellence has been exported at a time when the Indian software industry is known more for providing quality services than for product innovation. This also lends credence to the fact that a high-tech project like the LCA leads to many spin-offs enriching the nation's technology base as also bolstering its economic strength.

In a path breaking initiative that will herald business partnership to leverage the technology base of Indian Defence R & D by the software industry, ADA is all set to sign a contract transfer the AUTOLAY software with associated IPR to infosys. In a scenario where the Government is committed to developing various state-of-the-art technologies for many of its programmes in defence, space research, atomic energy, etc., the onus is on the industry to take some these cutting edge technologies with market potential to the world market and make them commercially successful. Infosys coming forward to join hands with ADA to sustain the development and further broad base the AUTOLAY software is a major step in this direction. Such R&D and industry partnerships with pooling of talents and infusion of adequate resources would nurture further growth of Indian technologies base in the value chain while also retaining the edge in a commercially competitive environment. With Infosys' well-known value system and commitment to growth and ADA's well-recognized talent pool and technology strengths derived from the LCA programme, all seems to be set for a perfect match. With this synergy between R&D and Industry demonstrating a model win-win relationship, ADA looks forward to share with industries many such technology spin offs from the LCA project.

AUTOLAY software, one of the several spin offs from LCA technologies has earned a revenue of about US$4 million to ADA in the past 7 years and with increasing acceptability of composites in several engineering applications including in the automobile sector, AUTOLAY is poised for much greater success in the years to come.