Air India's mega deal will create job opportunities: Thales India head

Paris [France], June 15 : Tata Group's Air India having ordered 470 odd planes from Boeing and Airbus will have a positive impact on job opportunities in India, both directly and indirectly, according to Ashish Saraf, Vice President and Country Head at Thales India.
Saraf emphasized that this would provide Thales India with an advantage, enabling them to offer their technologies on board the aircraft and engage in servicing and maintenance activities for these planes.
"It creates an advantage for us as it allows us to offer our technologies onboard the aircraft, service these aeroplanes in terms of their maintenance repair activity... It also translates directly into job creation, because when we bring in such technology and investments into India, we are looking at the creation of a lot of direct and indirect jobs as part of this initiative," Saraf told ANI on the sidelines of the ongoing Viva Technology event in Paris.
"It also translates directly into job creation, because when we bring in such technology and investments into India, we are looking at creating a lot of direct and indirect jobs as part of this initiative," he added.
On asked about India's prospects, he noted he sees the country as a shining star.
"We see India as the shining star in a world where a lot of countries are plunging into economic downturn. We already, post-COVID, have shown one of the strongest growth, not only in terms of GDP growth but in terms of the adoption of digital technologies... So for us, India, fueled by its domestic consumption, clearly seems to be on the right track in terms of clocking the fastest growth almost in the world," he added.
As per the provisional estimates released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) recently, real GDP growth for 2022-23 stood at 7.2 per cent, higher than the 7 per cent projected.
Despite global headwinds and tighter domestic monetary policy tightening, various international agencies have forecasted India to be one of the fastest-growing economies in 2023-24, supported by robust growth in private consumption and sustained pick-up in private investment.
Thales India has about 2000 employees in seven cities across India and the company provides solutions in the Aerospace, Space, Defence to Security and Transportation sectors.
Saraf said, "Thales India is looking to set up MRO stations in India to serve its domestic customers. It is already partnered with Bharat Dynamics Limited to bring one of the state-of-the-art missile systems -- Starstreak -- to India".
The Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) sector, which ensures the availability and airworthiness of aircraft, is critical to the aviation sector.
"Going forward we will also look at more and deeper partnerships with Indian companies to offer more state-of-the-art Make in India programs for aerospace as well as defense and in the civilian domains," he added.