Ahmedabad, November 28, 2005 (PTI)

It was unfortunate that India was not considering ship building as a core industry, according to A M Naik, chairman and managing director, Larsen & Toubro on Sunday.

"It is unfortunate that India did not have a single ship making yard and was no where in the ship building industry inspite of it being a core industry and as important as defence," Naik, who delivered a lecture on "challenges in reaching sustained double digit growth" at the IIM-A 'Confluence' remarked.

Narrating his own experiences while trying to foray into the industry Naik said, "We asked (from the government) for a joint venture with Hindustan Shipping Company but now it has been eight months since the talks were held and there has been no response. The government has now planned for revival package of Hindustan shipping and would be the seventh such package."

Identifying `Project Management' as the key sector for tomorrow, Naik said that L&T was going to start 'project management' institute in Vadodara soon where training would first be imparted to in house employees and then it would be open to the industry.

Naik also spoke of the promptness of the Chinese in devising and implementing projects, especially the manner in which they grew in the ship building industry.

He attributed the progress of the Chinese people to the manner in which they have participated in reforms as a national mission.

Speaking about his own company, he said that they were planning to recruit nearly 3,700 people, all engineers and freshers, and also appoint a chief training officer for this purpose.

Regarding the growth and contribution of the Information Technology sector Naik said that, "IT is a very good field and it has contributed to taking India ahead but it is only 4 per cent of the overall growth and we need to get out of virtual work and make our presence felt in real world."