Hello, everyone. A warm welcome to our investors to this special webcast where we focus on India. India is a growing economy, one that's gonna be increasingly important in the coming years. It's an economy that is set to grow at levels not seen in other parts of the world. It's also an important integral part of Schneider's equity story. We come to you on the sidelines of ELECRAMA, which is the largest showcase of electrical and automation ecosystem in India. I'm joined by an eminent panel, and I'm gonna introduce them to you now. On my left, Chairman and CEO, Jean-Pascal Tricoire. Welcome to India.
Hi, Amit. Thank you.
Manish Pant, who is our Executive Vice President for International Operations, which includes India as well. A long, long tenure at Schneider. We'll talk about that, as well as about 30 years in the industry as well. We have Anil Chaudhry, who is the head of our India business for the last 10 years, also a long and illustrious career, Anil. Thanks all of you for being here. We're gonna have a conversation just with the idea of getting the investors to better understand our business, our thinking, and our future. Jean-Pascal, I start with you. We've had many discussions around India. We're sitting here today, and I know you've told me about your thoughts on India, your experiences in India. Why don't we start with that? What does India mean to you?
Well, India is quite special to me, actually. This year is very special because we've been in India for the past 60 years. When I look at the past 20 years, I would say in Asia, my focus, our focus has been to build India to a new level. I set my first foot in India 30 years ago, so 60 for Schneider, 30 for me, and I've come here every year on many years, multiple times. What we see here is the most populous country on the planet, very young, eager to succeed, eager to develop, with huge needs in electrification because energy has been a big problem here and it's getting resolved, but the needs in energy to support the growth are huge and probably with no equivalent in the world. A huge capability in digital.
If you put electrification on digitization, this is a place where we have a lot of potential. We started really to invest to the next level in India at the turn of the century. Today, I'm very proud that India has become our third largest business in the world, and one of the first four hubs where we do R&D, everything manufacturing on development for India, but also for the world.
Yeah. Anil, maybe I come to you now. I've seen your tenure in India, which has been about 10 years now, I think. It's about 10 years now. I wanna thank you as well because, you know, you contributed to the growth at the group level as well. Even though we don't disclose externally at a country level, I have to also share that, you know, you also made the contribution at the profitability level. Tell us and tell our viewers a little bit about what is our footprint in India. I think it's important for people to understand the size and scale at which we operate here.
Oh, thank you, Amit. Yeah, India, as Jean-Pascal has rightly said, is the third largest market and one of the four hubs. If you put that in perspective, we are about 34,500 associates, employees in India. We have approximately 30 manufacturing sites which are already in production, and five more in different stages of construction stage, which will go in production in 2024, 2025. We have, within our 34,500 employees, 6,000 R&D, innovation and software engineers population in India. We talk about our customer connect. We are talking of a partner network, about 4,400 partners across India. We are present in about 500 cities in India, very close to with our approach of serving our customer close to that where they are and with customer sensitivity.
We today, when we are developing in India, innovating in India, what we sell in India, almost 80% is that made in India, developed in India and innovated India. That's the footprint which we have. This is exactly aligned with what we want to be partnering with the growth story of India. We have been, we are, and we will continue to be contributing to the growth story of India in future.
Well, thanks for sharing, Anil. Clearly on the one side there's the growth dynamic, and on the second side, we're ready in terms of our sizable footprint, continued investment and elements that make India one of our four global hubs. Thanks for sharing. Manish, maybe I bring you in as well, right? You're not based in India at the moment, but you have been in the past. I think you understand the Indian customer, the Indian ecosystem well. Why don't you share a little bit about your experiences about what is unique? What is unique about the Indian market? What's unique about the Indian customer?
Well, thank you, Amit. It's for me, it's been a privilege first to be serving in India the three brands that we have, that we'll be talking about a bit later. It has taught me a lot. The customers in India are very demanding. You know, it's not one India, but India is a microcosm of different, I would say, segments and different geographies, with each one of them having their own typicalities and needs. I think what we have been doing at Schneider very well is to be able to adapt to those needs. The customers are very value conscious.
There is a high, I would say the inclination of customers to really look for value, and that puts a lot of pressure on us to demonstrate that value to them, and I think we have been doing well here. It's also a customer that is, you know, moving very fast in terms of adoption of technology. This is something that we see here and with everything that we are doing, we are here to always ensure that we are exceeding the expectation of customers.
Thanks, Manish. We understand what the customers need, and that's our challenge, and that's also what we like to do to be able to serve them. Talking about investments, right? I want to remind our investors about the strategic, and I would say timely, investment that we've made, in recent years, which was the acquisition of the electrical business of Larsen & Toubro. Jean-Pascal, I know you were, in some ways, the architect, of this vision as well. Maybe just a word from you in terms of how the deal came about, and maybe then, Anil, to follow up with you as to how it's progressing at the moment.
Amit, it's been a very specific or special acquisition for me because L&T is a company I entered in contact, I said it 20 years ago, it took 18 years between the first contacts till the time we sign and close the deal. Now we've been close to 2 years in the deal, and it's a great success. I'm very proud of it. I always saw Schneider on L&T as sort of having different positioning on the market, but having the same culture, same specialization on our business of energy management, being very passionate about it on industrial automation. There was a natural combination to organize and to architect, as you said. I was sure that Schneider could open to Larsen & Toubro the international reach on the scale that was needed.
At the same time, I saw Larsen & Toubro as a company that could give us a local reach on the local routes in the Indian market, which are so necessary. Two companies, very passionate and specialized by the two business of energy management on automation, but at the same time, very complementary in terms of skills, in terms of positioning. I would say we spend most of the 18 years of discussion to speak about the culture and the people to make sure that everybody would have a space. I... Well, it's been a little bit long. Dating for 18 years is something which is a bit unusual, but I would say the marriage has been, in this case, very fruitful on leaving a full space to both of the teams.
Anil, would you like to add on that in terms of the last point Jean-Pascal made about the two teams and the space for the two teams as well?
Yeah, sure, Amit. Jean-Pascal talked about the people and culture. This was very, very important. Once we closed the deal, it was peak of wave one of pandemic, and we wanted to make sure that 30,000 of our colleagues, which we were welcoming in Schneider Electric from 1st of September 2020, they're all part of the family. We have been, you know, with them in traveling in PPE and making sure they understand our vision, they understand our mission, and how we want to collectively grow together. Most importantly, the customers. The priorities we put in front of us when we were talking of integration of this project was people, the customer, the business continuity, and then talk about all those synergies involved.
Very happy to share that, you know, we have been able to get all our colleagues from L&T Electrical Automation part of our journey, continuing serving our customers and continue the development and innovation of products, as Jean-Pascal said, which we manufacture in L&T Electrical Automation, meeting specific needs of Indian customers and L&T. We have, you know, in ELECRAMA, we have shown very clearly our these two brands separately, and that's very well accepted by our customers and partners and all ecosystem of our stakeholders.
It's been a, it's been a good start, but it's a start of a journey, and the journey continues. Maybe, Anil, I stay with you. In terms of the... I think we'll talk a little bit about the government policies, et cetera. One aspect, you know, which is obviously central, to the, to the development of the country and in line with the geopolitics is the Make in India initiative of the government. What is Schneider's stance on the Make in India? You talked about the 30 factories and five more coming along. What is the thinking as, and can you share a little bit about that as well?
You know, government policies today are very much also the policies which we have been adopting in India for many years. Jean-Pascal mentioned about that how we started our manufacturing footprint, how we have been growing on that, and how we are contributing with more, you know, made in India with local innovation, local development for India and for globe.
We have in the last years, with the focus which government had brought in the overall infrastructure growth, where we play a very important role in this, the policies which government has come, we are directly partnering with that, whether it's Make in India, Skill India, Digital India, we play a very important role in partnership with our customer and with the government. Especially the government's policies which help us continue growing our footprint India with Goods and Services Tax, which was one of that regime where they brought in tax efficiency in India, corporate tax reduction, Production-Linked Incentive schemes, talking of, you know, those FTZs, where we can produce products by importing the raw material at zero duty and then export it to various destination we have.
Very, very important part of our strategy has been working very closely with our partners and making sure that we partner with government policies and continue contributing with the overall mission of the government for Make in India, for India and for growth.
Yeah, I'm gonna just follow up on that, maybe Manish bring you in. What I heard was earlier you said that a large proportion of the India sales are emanating from India as well, but at the same time is also that manufacturing is also specific to the Indian market, right? Manish, you lead parts of the business which are covering a lot of the other emerging markets as well, the international or rest of the world as we report externally. Are there any specific angles which is, when you're looking at India from an export standpoint, that you can replicate and see benefit for other countries and as a consequence benefit for the overall group as well?
Sure. You know, we are in the international operations privileged to get the best of China and India, because, you know. We are getting what we have started to do now with the fourth, one of the hubs which has been created in India, is to start to leverage the learnings of Larsen & Toubro. Here we have, I'm pleased to share with you, our first launch that we've made in both in Southeast Asia as well as in Middle East, with a series of MCCB called GoPact, which is leveraging that platform, and it has got some good success. It's early days, and we intend to build on it and get more platforms and more products into the rest of the emerging markets.
I would also add that, India is a place where we are doing a lot of work in terms of access to energy. It's a place where this program has started. We are leveraging this program and deploying it in Africa in a very big way, as well as in South America and the East Asian economies.
Right. Manish at the same time, you know, you spoke about, we've spoken about L&T electrical business, spoken about Schneider. Let's not forget Luminous, which is also an important brand in a specific area. You were leading that for a period of time for us as well. So maybe just a quick word around what we do at Luminous so that everyone has an awareness specifically because, you know, how that fits into the larger thinking around the new energy landscape that we have.
Sure. You know, Luminous is our third brand in India, which is very specialized because it's focused on the consumer and on the residential market. It's a brand that is very well known for storage, and I always say that the world is moving to storage now, whereas India started to have storage several years ago. Today we have with Luminous, almost 70 million homes, you know, that are powered. Now, what we have to do as India, as you know, India is building a Green India, which is more dependent on green electricity. We are pivoting Luminous from being pure storage to moving towards solar plus storage.
This is at the center of this new energy landscape where consumers become prosumers because they are able to generate for themselves, as well as, you know, feed some excess power into the grid. We see a lot of exciting time with Luminous and we have started to specialize because we have divested a part of the business so that we could actually concentrate and put all our resources here.
Fair enough. If you think sort of on a futuristic basis, you're just saying India has a role to play in the larger ecosystem as well. Jean-Pascal, maybe I'll bring you in over here. I know the last two days have been busy, and I know that you've been meeting with representatives of government at the highest level as well. In terms of your understanding of the policies that the government's putting through, is there a level of resonance with what Schneider is doing and how Schneider can really contribute? What I'm trying to really ask is what kind of specific numbers do you look at from what we're hearing from the economists and from the government here that give us great opportunity for our business?
Look, Amit, there are two aspects to it. First, there is a market. When you look at the perspectives of development of India, it's probably one of the countries in the world, if not one of the two countries in the world, where there's gonna be the most investment in energy in the next coming 25 years. The numbers are staggering. It's all the most interesting for Schneider or important for Schneider that this investment will be done in renewable on the supply side, as well as in energy efficiency. It's been publicly declared. In the will to reduce the energy intensity on the demand side. We feel very much in sync and very much ready for that inflection point on the Indian market.
I feel I've been coming here for the past 30 years every year, and I feel we are in those moments of real inflection point on the market. On the other side, which is a structuration of the market, on the structural transformation of society, we feel completely in sync with Made in India, which we started before the policies 15 years ago, because we thought that India would be the perfect place to do manufacturing coupled with R&D on innovation. This is even reinforced as a role in a bifurcated world, where India has a neutral position in the world, which is not the case of other geographies. We feel absolutely in sync with Digital India, and we have been participating to 10 first smart cities in India, providing a digital platform for the integration of all facilities.
There are not many countries where we are that present, even in infrastructure. We feel really committed to Skill India. Here we've created over time 400 plus training centers for the youth to go into trades that we lead in electricity, in automation, and we intend to be really focused on that. We train more than 180,000 people, young people in the country over the past years. Very proud of that, and that syncs very well with the fast development of India on our duty to community to provide green electricity to people who didn't have access to electricity before. It's an all faceted alignment with the government priorities, which makes me, yeah, very optimistic about our contribution, the contribution of Schneider to the future of India.
Thanks for sharing that, Jean-Pascal. I think on the last point that you mentioned, another aspect of our equity story, which is unique, is really our focus on ESG. I just wanna remind all of you that, you know, Schneider is rated number one in terms of the number of ESG funds that are invested into it in the industrial sector, and number three across all sectors as well. You're well aware that, you know, we have a robust program. I'm not gonna get into the detail of that. What one aspect which is important in our targets that we have through 2025, which is that apart from all the global targets that we have set, and you know them well, we also have an angle which is local.
The genesis of that is to say that, you know, we also give empowerment to each of our countries to come up with programs which are specific to the needs of that country. Maybe, Anil, over to you. Can you explain what exactly is it that you are doing which is specific to India from this standpoint?
Yeah. Thank you, Amit. I think Jean-Pascal already mentioned about that, we are all very proud of what we do at local level, especially for the environment, social and governance point of view. We have made 5-year commitment, where we follow the global footprint as well as the local. Especially local, because when we talk about 438+ training centers, which we have today in the country to train electricians and young, you know, generation, young, people who are coming from school in the electrician trade. More importantly, in the last years, out of 178,000+ people, we have girl students which have been trained, which is in the... goes to 6,000+. It's very important to understand how socioeconomically impact it has.
You are talking of green energy, we are talking of renewable, which are happening in the hinterland, right? There you need technicians to be present, and this training provides them to get living very close to their communities, where the, you know, all these projects are happening. I'm very proud to say that out of these, about 1,200 are entrepreneurs. Recently, in one of the interactions with our these young trainees, I was very proud to see one of the entrepreneur today is making INR 30 million of revenue every year, and he has now a company which employs 15 of electricians who have been trained from our institution. That's the kind of impact we have. In addition to that, you know, we have launched a program for digital training of students in the schools.
We have taken a target that 35,000 students we will train in digital skills, of that 50% will be girl students, which we are doing. This is the program which we have initiated. We have a very important program in India, which we call a Green Ambassador. Jean-Pascal talked about energy efficiency. We want to train young students at a very early age of their, you know, learnings to be sensitive about energy efficiency. This program is all about that. So that's what we are doing at a local scale level. When we look at the point of view that at Schneider Electric in India level, we have taken a very strong commitment for pay equity, which is also aligned with the group initiatives. We also continue to make sure that the sustainability agenda does not remain within the organization.
You are aware that we last year launched Green Yodha initiative. To make communities, individuals, institutions, and, you know, government bodies to come and be part of our program to spread this mission of sustainability across the country. That's what we are doing.
Thanks, Anil. I can vouch for that. In the last two days in speaking to several of the colleagues here as well, I think it has a larger role in terms of, you know, the pride that you see in our colleagues as well. I think, just to share that, you know, this is one example of what's happening in India, but I can tell you that the similar sort of initiatives are being replicated across the world, but with the specifics, specificities of those countries.
I might also want to remind everybody that, you know, we have so many commitments, but one of the ones that we are proud of is the fact that on a yearly basis, we are helping our customers save around 100 million tons of carbon, save and avoid 100 million tons of carbon. That's something that, you know, we're proud of through our technologies. Maybe Jean-Pascal, you know, back to you. We spoke about India as one of the four global hubs. One important element of a global hub is, of course, around talent as well. I think we can vouch with Manish and with Anil, we have, you know, we have Indians who are sitting in important positions in the group as well. I think it goes beyond one country.
I think, you know, you've instituted the entire multi-hub concept here. What does that mean for the Indian organization, for instance, as well as for other emerging countries within Schneider?
Well, I can add Amit Bhalla to that list, if I may. Look, it's a very important part of the equation. What I've seen with pleasure, and I can really put personal stories between or behind the three of you in the way. I think I met you the day you were stepping in Schneider. I personally recruited Anil from Areva at that time, and we made a personal contract that he would develop India for Schneider after fulfilling his mission. My relationship with Manish dates back to a very early time in Schneider. I saw him, I recruited him from Larsen & Toubro, then he jumped into Schneider, then went into Luminous, and now has a pleasure to or has a privilege to be leading the three brands at the same time.
We've seen a flurry of talents coming from India and taking global positions in the group, which means that there is a natural knack of Indian talents to embrace global careers, and benefiting from that from their deep knowledge of the Indian market, which is extremely complex. You have as Manish was saying before, Indian customers are very demanding on value and this makes of India one of the most competitive environments in the world. I think we benefited also from a very early investment in technology in R&D, which makes that we have developed a pool of people who are proficient both in marketing and sales and in R&D. Well, Manish, you've been leading our Home and Distribution global business for several years. Anil came from deep expertise in power automation.
We benefit from that combination of sales and technology proficiency. Then, Indian talents are naturally at ease in the world. That has been great for us. I think our development in India has benefited from the diaspora of Indian talents everywhere in the organization. I could say that of other hubs, right? We've benefited from that capacity of giving the top positions in our company wherever people live and to expand inside the company without necessarily leaving the geography of origin. I really intend to keep doing that together with the new management at Schneider, because that creates an incredible capacity to blend the culture, to conform the cultures, and create more creativity and capabilities for Schneider in the future.
All right. Maybe we'll spend a minute or two also to talk around ELECRAMA, one of the reasons that we're here this week. You know, we've been at the booth. It's, it's super energizing to see the opportunities, the technologies, and really the pulse of the customers and the excitement in their eyes as well. Anil, maybe you wanna share with us a little bit about what specifically excites you around what we are showcasing in ELECRAMA this year.
Yeah, sure. ELECRAMA '23, we are present with our two booths for L&T Electrical & Automation and Schneider Electric. As Jean-Pascal mentioned earlier, this is the largest, you know, exhibition for electrical energy management and automation domain. We're showcasing complete suite of our offers from plant to plug with the, you know, all the digital and connected platforms, and also with the very strong software suites of application which we bring in. We take this opportunity to share with the larger customer base all our offers, but at the same time, launch some of the new offers which we are coming in this.
Using this ELECRAMA platform, we are launching, which is the futuristic, you know, technology which is coming is replacing SF6 with air as a gas in our ring main units, which is RM AirSeT, and that's what we are launching. We're launching our suite of application for building management. Jean-Pascal mentioned about there's a lot of energy which goes into building, and India is still building a lot of infrastructure of that. We have launched our building operation 2023 application, which are there. We have also launched with a connected offer approach our switchgear of the future. Where you can have our customers from the basement of the building till where the decision-making on cloud, all the parameters which are required for energy management and the energy consumption, energy utilization.
These are a few of the examples, and this is a very, very important platform to keep our customer informed about our innovation, our technological superiority with respect what is required, and also sharing with them what can help them make most of their energy and automation in the company.
Well, thanks for sharing. It's fascinating and, you know, there's so much detail we can go into. You know, I think we are probably gonna poll our investors at some point as well, and possibly see if we can have a field trip here at some point, you know, where they can get closer to the technologies and to the facilities that we've spoken about today as well. I think, you know, we can go on for a long time, but I think we reached our allotted time, so I thank each of you for your sharing. I think our investor audience will agree that, you know, we are living through uncertain, you know, geopolitical and economic environments.
However, the one point that economists today agree upon is the fact that, you know, India is uniquely and well-positioned to drive growth, you know, in the coming years. I think India is set to be the third-largest economy in the world, and it's well on its way. I think it's really incumbent upon our India team, and we continue to look at you know, to drive profitable growth for us and for our shareholders, for, you know, collectively and for the responsibility we have towards the government and the society as well. I thank you all for your time and effort today. Thanks to all of you as well for listening in, and look forward to seeing you very soon.