Taking it ahead
So, how important is the India business in the global scheme of things for GE Transportation? The Indian Railways order is one of the largest in GE Transportation's history and will establish a strong footprint in the South Asia region. "The local state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will be supplying 100 locomotives every year for the next 10 years i.e. one locomotive every three days. This project lays the foundation of a long-term deep relationship with one of the world's largest railways. We are optimistic that this will lead into new growth areas for us like use of digital technologies on Indian Railways rolling stock and network, supply of locomotives to mining and power companies in India as well as exports to some of the neighbouring countries in the region," explains Jain.
Further, with a very large engineering team based out of Bangalore, GE continues to leverage the Indian talent for its global projects. "The deep localisation on this project will create more opportunities for us to source components from India for our global manufacturing activities thus driving exports growth," he says with confidence.

Ease of doing business in India
There's been a lot of talk on paper about the improvement in India's ease of doing business rankings. So, we decided to find out how's been GE's experience on the ground. Jain says that GE has been very pleased with the support that has been extended by the Government of India, Ministry of Railways, as well as by the State Governments of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Jain believes that the success of delivering locomotives and establishing the local infrastructure manufacturing and service facility in such a short span clearly would not have been possible without the close co-ordination and commitment of teams from various Ministries and GE. "It is also important to mention that the local administrations have also been very supportive in providing support in resolving land acquisition, security, power connectivity issues which is critical for the successful implementation of such a mega project."
Overall it has been a positive experience for the GE Team so far in executing a complex project with tight timelines. "We believe moving forward a special focus to develop road, IT infrastructure and modern technical institutes could accelerate development of the region," Jain adds on a suggestive note.

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