India, a ‘melting pot’ of ideas, opportunities: Thales

Thales CTO Marko Erman said India is scientifically a very mature country with big ambitions and the company is increasing the number of people working in the country to explore more innovative activities.

The French Group, with interests in aeronautics, defence, space, transport, digital identity and security segments, already has more than 1,500 employees, including at its joint ventures, besides two engineering centres in India.

“India is very important for us. It is not just about competencies but also about the business prospects there. I think the pluses override the minuses.

“The software, data competencies are very relevant. This has already contributed to the business... We have been increasing a lot. We are learning how to connect local forces to Thales. On the agenda is how do we expand our engineering,” Erman said in an interview here. Present in India for more than 65 years, Thales has joint ventures with Indian players, including Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and L&T Technology Services.

“There is still room for expansion on that one (open source hardware). That is on the short term. With greater presence in India, we are also discovering new opportunities... We will add initiatives but will discover what makes more sense for our partners and our interests,” he said. Describing India as an “interesting melting pot” of ideas, Erman said Thales is spending time at the highest level of the management to learn more about the country as it then would be much easier to do business.