Paris: French defence and electronics major, Thales, has said it hopes to double its India-related  business, from euro 250 million to 500 million, over the next five years through increased sales in the military and civilian sectors.

"We have a long involvement with India and hope to increase our sales to double in next five years both in defence and civilian areas," Francois Dupont, Thales managing director and country corporate director, informed visiting Indian journalists.

"Every year we are registering a growth of five per cent to eight per cent in business in India," he added.

"In 2000, our sales were 90 per cent in the defence sector and 10 per cent in civilian area. In 2006, our sales were 80 percent in the civilian sector due to the boom in the Indian aviation market. Now we are at 50 per cent in both the sectors," Dupont explained.

Thales is a niche supplier of electronics and also supples radars and other modern equipment to the Indian armed forces. In the civilian sector it has clients such as Delhi Metro, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.

"We are currently working very actively for an air defence project of the Indian Army that entails the purchase of 1,000 short range missiles," said Bachu Murthi, vice president (strategy), air systems division.

"According to the proposal, the initial 200 would be supplied from here and the rest would be manufactured in India under transfer of technology agreement," he added.

Thales and MBDA have a joint development programme for active seekers - 4A (Active Anti-Air Seeker) family of seekers - that equip the MICA-EM and ASTER missiles. Thales contributes its experience and capabilities to MBDA-led definition studies and produces four sub-assemblies representing approximately 35 per cent of the seeker.

Murthi said Thales would also be bidding for the "half-a-dozen other tenders to be floated by the Indian armed forces".

Francois Quentin, Thales' senior vice president (aerospace division) said the company would also be submitting proposals for the upgrade of the Indian Air Force's (IAF) Mirage 2000 fighter that will keep them flying for another 25-odd years. The IAF operates two squadrons (40-plus aircraft) of the fighter that were purchased in the 1980s.

Thales has recently signed a contract to upgrade six of the Indian Navy's Soviet-era minesweepers into state-of the-art mine hunters.

Marc Coulaud, Asia regional director for land and joint systems, said the company was looking for more joint ventures with Indian companies both in the private and public sectors. "We will bring in the technology and our Indian partners will bring in the markets," Couland pointed out.

Thales already has a joint venture with Indian company Rolta, a developer of IT-based geospatial information systems (GIS), engineering design automation solutions and eSecurity services worldwide.

Thales employs some 120 people in Delhi and Mumbai and plans to increase the number to 300 in 2008, and to 500 by 2010.

It's revenues in 2007 were in excess of 12 billion euros.