Register Now He said India is now considered
a key country for sourcing various raw materials for the company's global production line and it is going to double procurement from the country in the next five years.
"India is now a key and reliable country in our global supply chain," he said.
Thales is part of the French firms that provided key components for the Rafale jets procured by India.
As part of Thales' offsets commitments under the Rafale deal, the company helped
Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) in producing modules for the RBE2 radar.
Thales has been providing avionics and other equipment to the state-run aerospace behemoth
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for over four decades and is involved in supplying equipment for various other key military projects.
Present in India since 1953, Thales has offices in New Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai, among others. Over 600 employees are working with Thales and its joint ventures in India.
Caine also complimented India's reform measures aimed at boosting defence manufacturing.
The government has initiated a series of measures in the last couple of years to encourage the domestic defence industry.
In August last year, it was announced that India will stop the import of 101 weapons and military platforms like transport aircraft, light combat helicopters, conventional submarines, cruise missiles and sonar systems by 2024.
A second negative list, putting import restrictions on 108 military weapons and systems such as next-generation corvettes, airborne early warning systems, tank engines and radars, was issued recently.
In May last year, the government announced increasing the
FDI limit from 49 per cent to 74 per cent under the automatic route in the defence sector.
The government has been focusing on reducing dependence on imported military platforms and has decided to support domestic defence manufacturing.
The
Defence Ministry has set a goal of a turnover of USD 25 billion (Rs 1.75 lakh crore) in defence manufacturing by 2025 that included an export target of USD 5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) worth of military hardware.