Hindustan Aeronautics started to design an agricultural aircraft in 1968 designated the HAL-31 Mk 1 with a cockpit directly over the wing leading edge.

It was re-designed as the HA-31 Mk II Basant and first flew on the 30 March 1972.

The Basant is a conventional braced low-wing monoplane with a fixed tailwheel landing gear and powered by a 400 hp (298 kW) Avco Lycoming IO-720 piston engine.

It had a raised cockpit to give the pilot a good all-round view during spraying operations.

Data from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982–1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing, Page 2160General characteristics Performance