The Hindu : Business : Dream big, industry told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 22, 2007
ePaper

Business

Business

Dream big, industry told

Special Correspondent

Birth centenary of L&T co-founder Henning Holck-Larsen commemorated

— PHOTO: PAUL NORONHA

MOMENTOUS OCCASION: (from Left) S. M. Krishna, Governor of Maharashtra, with P. Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, and A. M. Naik, Chairman and Managing Director, L&T, at a function in Mumbai on Friday.

MUMBAI: Indian industry should ‘dream big’ and rapidly increase the size and scale of its operations to compete with or even better China, according to Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram. Speaking at a function to celebrate 70 years of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and to commemorate the birth centenary of its co-founder, Henning Holck-Larsen, Mr. Chidambaram said, India should also improve its implementation of projects.

The Finance Minister highlighted the importance of the manufacturing sector in the country’s economy and pointed out that unfortunately China was today regarded as a manufactured goods provider globally while India was a services provider.

Manufacturing matters

India’s services sector today accounts for 55 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) with agriculture accounting for around 17 per cent while the remaining accounted for by the manufacturing sector. ``The working age population in India will surpass the dependent age population in the next 20 years and it will be a disaster if there are not enough jobs for them as only 5 per cent of the 19-24 age group receive any kind of vocational education. The answer to providing employment to this emerging population will rest with manufacturing and industry,” he said.

While India and China are similar in terms of abundant human resources, trained labour and raw materials, “India scores in ‘entrepreneurship’ and every year there are new ‘kids on the block’ who are threatening established players. We also score in ‘management skills’ which is the envy of most countries, including China. Also, companies are more profitable here and 73 per cent of multinational companies located in India are profitable as against no more than 40 per cent of those located in China.”

He said L&T was a unique company owned by institutions, individuals and a trust of employees. “It belongs not to the public or private sector but to the ‘National’ or ‘People’s’ sector employing more than 50,000.” Praising L&T’s completion of the Bangalore and Hyderabad airports ahead of schedule, Mr. Chidambaram said, “They are exceptions. Of the projects of a minimum size of Rs. 20 crore, 301 have been delayed by one month to 96 months and this delay has resulted in a cost overrun of Rs. 48,961 crore.”

The Union Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, also lauded L&T’s efforts in ‘nation building’ and said both Bangalore and Hyderabad airport works undertaken by the company were ahead of schedule and their inauguration is slated for March.

New benchmarks

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, said that the unique feature of L&T was that it had “built confidence in the minds of the people and created new benchmarks and standards for industry.”

Responding to a statement from the Union Minister for Petroleum, Oil and Natural Gas, Murli Deora, that there was an urgent need to repair and reconstruct the dilapidated buildings in Mumbai inhabited by former mill workers, Mr. Deshmukh exhorted L&T to take up the project. “We are willing to offer a memorandum of understanding (MoU) route with L&T instead of the usual tender route to repair and reconstruct the old, dilapidated buildings in south central Mumbai.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section