Visitors to Satyam Computer Services’ new “automotive and aerospace centre of excellence” – or AACE – could be forgiven for believing they had entered a space shuttle rather than the office of an Indian outsourcing company.

The entrance to the research laboratory in the southern city of Chennai is through a semi-circular passageway, lit with blue lights. Just inside the doorway, movement detectors play different notes of music as the visitor passes through them. Around the laboratory, technicians tinker with robots simulating industrial production processes.