Can you please elaborate on Alstom's business in the railways and metro sector in India?
Alstom has been present in India for over 100 years. Although we were a late entrant in the transport space, we have now very strong footprints in the country. After its entry in 1990s, Alstom's Transport business is now fully equipped to offer 100 percent localised, competitive and state-of-theart products and services to cater to the growing urban and mainline transportation market in India. At Alstom, we have the capability to provide the full gamut of transport systems, notably trains, signaling, infrastructure and integrated solutions and maintenance and modernisation services. In line with Government of India's ‘Make in India' programme aimed at making India an export hub, Alstom has been investing heavily in product design, research and development as well as in production units so that it can serve not only the mainline railways and urban metro sector in India, but also rest of the world.

There has been an immense emphasis on the infrastructure in India. How does it boost the sector and hence your business?
India is on the move. It is one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world with over 1.2 billion people engaged in building a modern nation with a world-class infrastructure. Simultaneously, India is undergoing a dramatic urban transformation
with several medium and small towns expanding to large cities and several existing cities growing to mega cities. India already has a largest urban population, but it is expected to grow from the current 330 million to about 590 million by 2030, an increase of over 260 million in the next 15 years. This would translate into over 68 cities having population of over one million people and 15 cities with over four million people. This trend of increasing urbanisation, India is witnessing a spiral rise in demand for reliable and efficient transport infrastructure
and services. This burgeoning local demand combined with progressive economic policies will provide a great impetus to the rail business both in the mainline as well as urban transport sector and help in improving the fluidity in the cities as well as between cities.

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