Airbus group merges India business units

Global aerospace major Airbus on Wednesday announced merging its Indian business divisions into a single entity to support its Make in India plans.

"We have consolidated our divisions in India under Airbus Group India Ltd to pool our resources and engage with local stakeholders more efficiently," Airbus group chief executive Tom Enders said in a statement here.

The single entity will help the group to support its Make in India plans and allow it to build on its relations with the country.

India is the first international market where the French group's local operations have been brought under a single company as part of its 'one roof' policy.

"Given India's importance for us, we have implemented a new organisational structure with new president Pierre de Bausset, a 25-year veteran of the group and its former corporate secretary," Enders said on the occasion.

Bausset takes over from Yves Guillaume, who had established the group's local footprint during his nine-year tenure in India.

"Synergies, growth and consistency are the tenets of my vision for a robust presence in India. My mandate is to boost collaboration with India and embed it in our group's industrial organisation," Bausset asserted.

The group is tying up with Indian partners to target defence acquisition programmes.

"A mature Indian aerospace and defence sector is in our interest as it will open up more opportunities for us to partner with domestic players to fulfill requirements of our local customers and jointly target export markets," Bausset pointed out.

Airbus has made a joint bid with Tata group to offer the C295 aircraft as a replacement for the Indian Air Force's ageing Avro aircraft.

The company also plans to manufacture electronic sensors with a local partner.

In the space sector, Airbus is partnering with the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop and produce heavier satellites.

Sourcing and engineering are amongst the pillars of Airbus Group India's growth strategy.

"We aim to embed the Indian industry, public and private, in our global value chain and achieve $2 billion in cumulative sourcing from India by 2020," Bausset added.

Lauding the quality of India's engineering talent, Bausset said the competitive attitude of Indian engineers demonstrated the country's potential to become a hub for innovation in the group.