French defence company Thales to ramp up India operations

LUCKNOW: French defence and engineering giant Thales says that it looking at significantly ramping up its Indian operations and will be hiring “thousands of engineers” here in the near future as it focuses on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), reports Manu Pubby.
The company, which has a major work share in French military platforms including the Rafale fighter jets that have been ordered by India, currently has 1,600 employees in India that work on cutting-edge technologies.

“We have very ambitious plans for India and plan to have thousands of engineers at our two centres of excellence here. The plan is to have maybe 4,000 engineers here who will work as part of our global supply chain,” Pascale Sourisse, senior executive vice president, Thales, told ET.

The company has two engineering excellence centres in India, one each in Noida and Bengaluru that work in the aerospace and defence sectors. It is also executing offsets worth over $1 billion as part of the Rafale fighter jets deal.

Thales says that it will focus on the Digital India initiative as well by leveraging the skillset available domestically.

“We are investing in the digital sector in India. At a global level, we have invested 7 billion in digital, artificial intelligence, big data and connectivity. India has a critical role to play in our strategy,” Sourisse says.

On the Rafale offsets clause, Thales says that its latest joint venture with Reliance Defence will integrate the radar and electronic warfare systems onboard the fighter jets at a new facility in Nagpur.

“We have planned to integrate the radar on the aircraft and it is happening now. The technology transfer has been done, and we plan to have the first radars integrated this quarter. We will also work on electronic warfare equipment,” the senior executive said.

Besides the Reliance partnership, Thales will work with partners like Larsen and Toubro, Bharat Electronics and Samtel to meet its offset commitments.