Made-in-India eagle eyes, not eons away, EON wants to make sure

A lot of pride, curiosity and excitement filled most Indians as they watched Operation Sindoor on their screens. An interview with Punit Badeka, Founder & Precision Manufacturing Leader EON Space Labs, helps us to take a closer look at the glorious leaps of technology equipping our forces and soon our space frontiers, business, wild life, traffic and agriculture applications - all being done now with sharper eyes and faster ears.

Tell us how you came into this space and how this idea went into orbit? How Indian is it?

We 3 core founders came together as a team from different domains and that was like an entire ecosystem. I came from a company that was building contact lenses. I specialised in single-point diamond turning and fabrication of high-precision optical components. The company I worked for was importing them and I helped them to set up a precision manufacturing lab to do that in India. I was a mechanical engineer with a master’s in industrial engineering and management- I set up a manufacturing facility for specialised contact lenses at LV Prasad Eye Hospital, utilising ultra-precision diamond turning machines. These machines, while used for lenses, also have capabilities for manufacturing lenses used in satellites and drones. I met my co-founders, Sanjay Kumar, an optical engineer, and Manoj Kumar, a mechanical engineer, at LV Prasad, where we collectively covered the design, manufacturing, and optomechanical aspects of product development.

We are soon getting fit-to-fly certificates and hitting confidence of surviving in the space atmosphere.

So what underlined the make-in-India strength as the company took shape?

We saw that we were utilising only five per cent of that equipment. During Covid days, not much production was happening in that lab. One day we saw a video of a monolithic telescope - done in a small set-up. We simulated it and EON was able to successfully manufacture lenses in a week that traditionally took months, showcasing our technological efficiency with advanced machinery. This led to the Indian Navy identifying the product, ‘MIRA’ and awarding it as a winner of the IDEX open challenge 4.0 to build a monolithic telescope integrated with advanced sensors and AI-detection for naval applications. The challenge highlighted the lack of technology in India for manufacturing optics on materials like fused silica and germanium for sphere applications, a gap EON Space Labs is addressing. All this led to the idea of doing something more and leverage indigenisation. That’s how we started this company.

India depends on other countries for rare metals like Germanium. We can process and manufacture it but raw material availability is an issue.

So EON stands for?

EON Space Labs stands for Earth Observation Network- it designs, develops, and manufactures optical payloads (cameras) for satellites, drones, UAVs, and ground-based surveillance, aiming to indigenise the manufacturing process in India and create export opportunities to the global market.

We build optical payloads which help UAVs, satellites and surveillance. We design, develop and manufacture it in the country. It is an Indian product- made from the scratch. From our first idea taking form, soon we were making products which add value to the drone and satellite ecosystem. We are also getting fit-to-fly certificates and hitting the confidence of surviving in the space atmosphere as we move ahead.

What is your forte?

We specialise in the design, development, and manufacturing of advanced Electro-Optic Infrared (EO-IR) and optical payloads. EON Space Labs specialises in the design and development of advanced optical payloads for space-based applications, including Earth Observation (EO), scientific research, and satellite-based surveillance. Our payloads are optimised for CubeSats, small satellites, and autonomous satellite swarms, enabling high resolution imaging, multispectral analysis, and intelligent object identification.

Is it easy to deepen indigenisation in this space? How much is happening?

Most IR optics are imported. We have designed and completed the ecosystem with our products. We will launch version 2 and 3 in coming weeks. Our AI algorithms are trained with ML capabilities and can help in 2 km detection of drones. The products also fit in a versatile range of areas – soft kill, hard kill, large-range finder and ground-based apps for drones along with targeting and locking parts. Some field trials are about to start for Short Wave IR sensors. A lot of this stuff is imported from Israeli players so far. We can offer an Indian alternative here. Our v3 and v4 versions are quite comparable and at very lower prices than these off-the-shelf systems. We have solved the complexity part of design and manufacturing in an incremental way.

Are these parts strong on integration with various kinds of equipment?

Yes, EON Space Labs’ payloads are compatible with various satellite sizes (2U, 3U, 6U) and drone capacities. We have diversity with product weights ranging from 500g to 2kg based on military standards. The base plate is there and the product can be configured as per drone’s capacities. MIRA can align with all kinds of satellites – it can also work with 3U satellites as well as 5U ones. Our payloads can fit any dimension- based on customer’s inputs.

How important is miniaturisation for these payloads? Has that been cracked well?

We can achieve the same resolution as a traditional telescope- and in less weight. It enables satellite manufactures to save costs and save weight while also getting real-time detection strengths. We are demonstrating our capabilities through projects like a Rs. 8 Crore deal in the area of swarm satellites. Today, many satellite companies are looking forward to new optics.

In Operation Sindoor, India demonstrated its drone-borne surveillance capability, built entirely with home-grown optical systems.

Does scarcity of rare minerals pose a big strategic factor in this space?

India depends on other countries for rare metals like Germanium. We can process and manufacture it but raw material availability is an issue. Also if one orders it today, one will get it by March-April. In our R&D we have come up with different combinations. We have identified materials that are easily available in regions like Bangalore- we can extract Germanium out of them because of our design capabilities. It helps us to opt for alternatives and also to reduce weight.

Can you talk about India’s new military edge on the technology side – specially after the Operation Sindoor examples that the country saw recently? What change will making our capabilities right here in India bring?

In the space of EO/IR we are still highly dependent on imports- imported EO-IR payloads and costly foreign systems where `5,000–10,000 enemy drones were being countered with expensive equipment. New advancements in payload area not only help there but also make the combat tactics agile and help in automatic destruction of enemy/suspicious drones. Imported stuff is not just costly- any damage takes four to five months to repair and has to be sent back to that country. We are trying to close the gap with indigenous optical payloads and affordable analogue camera variants priced as low as `3,000–`4,000 for expendable drones.

We have demonstrated -as a country- that India has potential and real edge in this area. The key technological edge India demonstrated in Operation Sindoor was its drone-borne surveillance capability, built entirely with home-grown optical systems. EON’s swappable EO-IR payload (V1-S) further reduces costs from `16 lakh to `4–6 lakh by allowing operators to switch between day and night modules. Overall, Operation Sindoor underscored India’s growing self-reliance in defence tech, marking a pivotal shift from dependency on imported components to indigenised, modular, and cost-efficient surveillance systems.

So your market is primarily the defence space?

We can help a lot in perimeter and border surveillance as well as day-night vision and real-time eyes for drones. But there is a lot beyond the defence area. Our products also create advantages in wild life surveillance, solar panel surveillance, traffic surveillance, ambulance assistance and many real-time data applications with our AI and ML add-ons. A lot of use-cases are possible- specially with head-mounted displays and bulk systems.

What have been your highlights in the Space vertical?

In the space domain, EON Space Labs offers two products: MIRA and ARGUS. MIRA, is a miniaturised and compact lightweight telescope, scheduled for launch this year with ISRO and SpaceX in January and February, to be used with multispectral sensors in Low Earth Orbit for agricultural applications. This launch is part of a revenue-sharing order with ‘TakeMe2Space’. EON Space Labs is undergoing functional and environmental testing at Laboratory For Electro Optics Systems (ISRO) and Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad to secure the fit-to-fly certificate for Mira, which will install confidence in satellite manufacturers like Dhruva Space and Kepler Aerospace.

The biggest challenge- so far – when it comes to making in India, is?

A key challenge in indigenisation has been manufacturing optics on fused silica, especially for SWIR sensors, which require complex materials like silica. The availability of advanced machines through strategic partnerships like HHV Advanced Technologies enables us to manufacture complex surfaces, further reducing size and weight while maintaining performance. This self-reliance also prevents us from sharing designs with other countries, maintaining intellectual property.

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in