'India is about competencies, biz prospects; discovering new opportunities'

Paris: Expanding its presence in India, which is an "interesting melting pot" of ideas, Thales Group is discovering new opportunities in the Indian market as it is about competencies as well as business prospects, according to a senior official.

Thales Chief Technology Officer 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 sprawling 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 told PTI 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.