Ambitions beyond SUVs, M&M to take off in aviation

The Mahindra Group started out trading steel before assembling jeeps and commercial vehicles eventually making deep tracks as the country's largest manufacturer of tractors and SUVs.

Its climb was accelerated when Harvard-trained Anand Mahindra joined the family's auto flagship Mahindra & Mahindra in 1991 muscling in what some call frugal engineering, developing cars like the Scorpio at a fraction of what it would have cost Detroit. M&M is currently working on a dream project to create a global SUV to be launched later this year. "It is called the global SUV because we have designed it with global parameters in mind," Mahindra said. This auto major has recently acquired two small Australian aerospace companies and is heading towards the aviation sector. "We have designed this aircraft with the National Aeronautics Laboratory and that plane is due to fly anytime now, he added. Below is the edited transcript of the star generation leader's exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18's Christine Tan. Also watch the accompanying videos. Q: You've not shied away from difficult acquisitions. You made headlines back in 2009 when you acquired scandal-tainted Satyam Computers which was involved in the biggest scam in the history of corporate India. What made you go out and acquire a company like Satyam, given all its problems and controversies? A: We were hunting for two years before for an appropriate acquisition. This is because the board of our flagship IT company Tech Mahindra had recognised that we had exploited the telecom vertical to the hill. We were already market leaders. I have said earlier also we had our eye on Satyam before it became prey to the scam. I met the promoter numerous occasions and suggested a merger even where he might have come out continuing to run the show and be the dominant partner. We couldn't understand why wasn