“Contributing to India’s Growth Story”
Vayu: Over the years, Thales has formed various partnerships and joint ventures in India. Please give an update on these associations.
Thales: Thales has formed co-operative partnerships with public and private sector industries, bringing its expertise for delivering high-end trusted technology solutions. We have been working closely with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited now for over 50 years and providing high-end avionics to equip the platforms that HAL is designing. Thales will continue to develop the partnership with HAL through transfer of technology, when appropriate, to jointly address the growth of Indian defence aerospace market.
Thales has successful JVs with Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Samtel and Reliance Aerostructure Limited. The JV with BEL known as BEL-Thales Systems Limited (BTSL) is dedicated to civilian and select ground-based military radars. With BTSL, Thales is jointly developing the PHAROS fire control radar for gun and missile systems that will cater to both domestic Indian and international markets. BTSL is also undertaking the production of the LBREC – Low Band Receiver of the self-protection suite of the Rafale.
The JV with Reliance Aerostructure,known asThales Reliance Defence Systems Limited (TRDS),is developing Indian capabilities to integrate and maintain airborne radar and electronic warfare sensors. The JV is developing skills and activity in the Special Economic Zone of Mihan-Nagpur together with an Indian supply chain for the manufacturing of microwave technologies and high-performance airborne electronics. Thales also has JVs with Samtel for locally producing helmet-mounted sights and displays, military avionics and airborne sensor systems and with L&T Technology Services for software engineering in avionics respectively.
In addition to this, we have also been strengthening our supply chain ecosystem in the country which over 75 local partners have been mobilized. Our footprint and capability portfolio continue to grow steadily. We have also formed co-operations with several Indian companies such as Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL). Last year, we announced two other associations with the Kalyani Group and MKU Limited, in different areas.
These partnerships have positioned us to move from Transfer of Production to direct industrialisations which increase the design and development activities in India. With this, we seek to contribute to the government’s ambition of positioning India as a global manufacturing hub.
Vayu: What are the latest announcements by Thales in India?
Thales: In April2019, Thales completed the acquisition of Gemalto, with which Thales is stronger today having over 80,000 people working across 68 countries. We have combined complementary strength and expertise, which enables Thales to position itself as a new global leader in end-to-end digital security, playing a pivotal role in the digital transformation of the customers and markets we serve. This resonates with our overall strategy to strengthen the Group’s expertise in digital technologies: Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity. Since 2014, Thales has invested nearly 7 billion euros in these digital technologies.
In India, Thales has tripled its employee strength to over 1600, working across various locations in the country. The Gemalto acquisition in fact positions us to even better support the ‘Digital India’ Initiative of the government here.
Our historical business segments—defence, transportation and aerospace continue to remain very dynamic in India. Fully in line with the country’s objective of developing a local manufacturing ecosystem, Thales is committed to ‘Make in India’ as well as ‘export from India’.In addition to growing our own activity here, we have been strengthening the local industrial ecosystem by way of various partnerships as shared earlier.
A natural extension of this ecosystem is reinforcing our engineering presence. We are ramping up our own R&D activities in India, through the recent opening of an Engineering Competency Centre in Bangalore (that focuses on hardware, software and systems engineering capabilities for both the civil and defence sectors). Thales also has an engineering centre in Delhi National Capital Region (Noida and Gurugram) that is focused on digital identity and security. Thales presently has over 1000 engineers working in India.
At Thales, we are extremely proud to have contributed to India’s growth story. We have been strengthening our local partnerships, generating business worth Rs 1000 crore for our Indian supply chain partners and creating hundreds of job opportunities. As a global technology leader, we remain committed to India and help our customers prepare for tomorrow, today.
Vayu: An update please on your engineering competence centre launched in India last year.
Thales: Going beyond production, Thales is reinforcing its engineering presence in the country. We are ramping up our own R&D activities in India, through the ECC launched in Bengaluru last year. The centre in Bengaluru is the first-of-its-kind in India that focuses on both civil and defence sectors. It is currently dedicated to high value-added systems in the fields of Air Traffic Management, avionics, cockpit, flight management, in-flight entertainment and connectivity systems, radar software, airborne Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance tactical management systems. The ECC is also creating capabilities in advanced hardware technology such as Radio Frequency/designs for radars and communication equipment, high-performance processing units and in airborne digital processing functions. With more than 250 R&D engineers currently employed at the centre in Bengaluru, we will be hiring more engineering staff in the country in the coming years.
Vayu: Can you elaborate on Thales’ plans for DefExpo 2020?
Thales: In keeping with DefExpo 2020’s focus – ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’ – Thalesis showcasing defence technologies that are digitally driven and future focused. These technologies have the potential to enable India’s armed forces to achieve high ambitions and master every decisive moment. At our standR17 in Hall 3, a wide range of products and solutions would be on display through a series of demonstrations across four categories – Land, Naval & Aero, Digital Transformation and Security.