Bangalore: Stepping up its focus on the Indian market, International Business Machines Corp (IBM) is now eyeing the country's aerospace and defence sectors and is evaluating strategies, including partnerships with private and public sector companies, to tap into the Indian defence market.

The multinational computer technology and consulting corporation said it will offer enterprise optimisation and microelectronics solutions.

''We see India as a significant market as part of our growth strategy and would be investing to develop it,'' said Tom Kilkenny, general manager for IBM's global aerospace and defence solutions.

According to Kilkenny, in India these sectors had the potential to generate earnings of up to $5 billion over a 10 year period  for the company.

For IBM, India tops the list of emerging markets from a growth perspective even as the 'Big Blue' continues to earn a major portion of its aerospace and defence revenues from mature markets in the US, Europe and Japan.

IBM plans to target aerospace component and defence equipment makers with its enterprise optimisation solutions that help companies in productivity improvement and reduce time-to-market. Through its Advanced Aerospace Solutions Environment, a framework of software tools and assets, Websphere family of middleware technology, Rational suite of testing tools and SOA (service oriented architecture) IBM expects to enable design capabilities, build, manufacture and supply chain for these vendors.

''We also see a potential to embed our micro-electronic technologies in products of our customers,'' Mr Kilkenny said.

About a fourth of IBM's global revenues from aerospace and defence vertical is associated with embedded aspect of the business.

Research firm Frost & Sullivan estimates the Indian defence market to touch $36 billion by 2013.

With emphasis on modernisation and indigenisation, the Indian defence forces are investing over $3 billion on C4SI (Command, Control, Co-ordination, Communication, Surveillance and Intelligence) in the next four years.

IBM, which has over 2,000 consultants and systems integration professionals, besides hundreds of developers and researchers focused on the aerospace and defence vertical, services aerospace and defence giants such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.