By Emmanuel de Roquefeuil, VP & Country Director, Thales in India
New Delhi. 05 February 2020. With substantial progress and business reforms over the past few years, India as a country provides tremendous opportunities for business partnerships and bilateral investment projects across sectors. According to the latest World Bank’s ease of doing business 2020 report, India jumped to 63rd position vis-a-vis 77th rank in the previous year. This clearly indicates the favourable prospects India offers to foreign OEMs like us to explore business opportunities and form new relationships with local partners in the country. The ecosystem created by government not only facilitates ease of doing business but also attracts foreign investors and creates job opportunities.
Over the years, Thales has played a major role in strengthening the industrial and defence base of the country through the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme. By offering its expertise and strengths in defence, transport, aeronautics, and digital identity and security markets, Thales has been a perfect match for India’s various ambitious objectives. The organization today has over 1600 employees currently working with Thales and its joint ventures (JVs) in India.
Reinforcing its presence in the country, Thales with over 65 years of strong legacy, continues here to contribute towards make in India as well as export from India. The company has formed various co-operative partnerships with public and private sector industries, bringing in its expertise in delivering high-end technology solutions. Thales has been working closely with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for over five decades and has successful JVs with Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) – dedicated to radars, Samtel Samtel – dedicated to military avionics and Reliance Aerostructure Limited for electronic warfare and radar. Currently it is working with over 75 local supply chain partners in the country, engaged in its global supply chain across defence and civil markets.
Aiming to go beyond production and support innovation, the company is now operating two engineering competence centers located in National Capital Region (Gurugram and Noida) and Bengaluru. The Bengaluru engineering competence centre specialises in defence, aerospace and transportation, and the one in Noida and Gurugram is focused on Digital Identity and Security including cybersecurity, IoT, biometric as well as big data analytics solutions. Going forward, Thales seeks to continue developing capabilities for local engineering, procurement from India and strengthen its local partnerships.
Thales is enthusiastic about its participation at DefExpo India 2020 – the biennial India’s premiere defence exhibition. This mega event supports innovative solutions and offers a platform for stakeholders to foster partnerships and raise the level of technology in the country. In alignment with DefExpo 2020’s focus – ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’, Thales is showcasing defence technologies that are digitally driven and future focused. With the display of such unique digitally driven technologies across four categories – Land, Naval & Air defence, Digital Transformation and Security, Thales will not only reiterate its commitment towards “Make in India” but will also showcase its upcoming plans towards the development and modernisation of the Indian armed forces.
As a global technology leader, Thales remains committed to India and helping its customers prepare for tomorrow, today. The company stays driven to offer cutting edge technology solutions to help customers master their decisive moments in an increasingly complex world.
