The 70th anniversary celebrations were the occasion to mark both Thales’s enduring commitment to the country since 1953, and the important role the country plays within the Group.
A major milestone shared with customers, partners, and suppliers
On 17 October, the iconic Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi served as the venue for the 70th anniversary celebrations. Patrice Caine, Thales Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Pascale Sourisse, SEVP, International Development, welcomed a number of key customers, partners and suppliers, including senior executives from Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Air India, IndiGo Airlines, Adani, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Cyient, Centum.
Ashish Saraf, VP and Country Director for India, opened proceedings, before inviting Thierry Mathou, the Ambassador-designate of France to India, to deliver the Guest of Honour address. The French Ambassador highlighted the strong India-France bilateral relations as well as the important contribution made by Thales.
Before sharing Thales’s ambitious plans for the future, Patrice Caine first looked back to 1953 when Thales began supporting India in the building of modern capabilities in communications and electronics through the creation of a new company named Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
“Over the years, India has reinforced its important position on the global stage, and also for Thales. Our ambitions here can be summarized in two words – ‘expansion’ and ‘localisation’. These mean that we will hire more, produce more, purchase more and develop new lines of business here, in line with our commitment to support the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) vision of the Indian government.”
Patrice Caine
Together towards a low-carbon future with our key suppliers
The day of celebrations also included a signing ceremony that saw five of our key Indian suppliers, Cyient, Centum, SFO Technologies, Hical and Titan Engineering, join with Thales in its strategy for a low-carbon future.
Sharing Thales’s future plans with leading Indian media
The celebrations also offered the occasion for major Indian media including The Economic Times (largest read financial daily), CNN-News18, ANI (video news agency), CNBC TV18 and The Times of India to interview Patrice Caine and Pascale Sourisse. The media coverage highlighted how Thales is bullish on India, both as a market for its defence, aerospace and digital identity and security businesses, and as an R&D hub, notably in the engineering sector.
India is one of the global engineering hubs for Thales housing two Engineering Competence Centres, one in Noida dedicated to Digital Identity & Security activities and the other one in Bangalore dedicated to Aerospace and Defence business.
Find out more about Thales’s projects and partnerships in India: Thales in India
