7 October 2012 Last updated at 17:00 ET By Shilpa Kannan BBC News, Bangalore

A crowd of workers looks on proudly as a tractor tows a military helicopter across a huge field near Bangalore, in the Indian state of Karnataka.

This is the Rudra - one of the modern fighter aircraft produced at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (Hal), India's oldest and largest aircraft manufacturer.

The helicopter has been fitted with technology including laser rangefinder and thermal vision to enable the detection of targets in all weather conditions.

Armed with 70mm rockets, anti-tank guided missiles and air-to-air missiles, it is expected to play a major role in India's military industry.

Hal is state-owned and the major supplier to the country's armed forces. In the past 60 years, it has built more than 3,500 aircraft.

Hal has also helped to build an aerospace industry in and around Bangalore, where more than a quarter of India's air and spacecraft are produced.

Now the local authorities are hoping to attract more investment to turn the area into India's aerospace hub.

"Karnataka has its advantages - skilled manpower and engineering talent, and a lot of the supplier base is located here," says Karnataka's investment commissioner Maheshwar Rao.

National Aerospace Laboratories, Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Indian Space Research Organisation all have their offices in Bangalore. Leading private companies such as Boeing, Airbus, Honeywell and GE Aviation are also based in this city of 8.5 million people.

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Bangalore's goal as aerospace hub