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Larsen & Toubro non-executive chairman A M Naik on Tuesday said he was "apprehensive" about bidding for Rs 1,338-crore ITER's cryostat contract for the world's largest experimental thermo-nuclear fusion reactor in France as it was considered as "too risky" a bet. The company, which bagged the contract in 2012from ITER India, a wing of Department of Atomic Energy,to manufacture and install the cryostat, on Tuesday flagged off the last delivery of top lid sectors of the cryostat to the facility in France. Naik, who had joined the flag off ceremony through a virtual platform, recollected the days of 2011 when he was in doubt whether the company should bid for the project or not. "At the time when we were quoting in 2011, this project was perceived by L&T and by me in particular...if you want to call me a culprit...as a risk. The contract included construction of large temporary workshops in France within two years of award of contract with capacity of 200 MT and I was very ...
Industry doyen AM Naik went public with concerns over the economy, saying we should feel "lucky" even if GDP clips at 6.5 percent, and recommended faster project clearances like the one in Gujarat when prime minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister, as a solution. The Padma Vibhushan awardee also said the "situation is challenging" on data credibility, saying one has to use her own judgement while believing in the official numbers. "Growth is going to be not more than 6.5 percent this year. My feeling is that though they (government) claim it is 7 percent plus, if we can maintain 6.5 percent, we will be lucky," Naik, the non-executive chairman of the engineering giant L&T told reporters on the sidelines of AGM Thursday. The comments come at a time when economy slipped to a five-year low of 5.8 percent in the March quarter, and questions are being raised on the methodology of assessing the very official growth numbers by a group of economists. Naik said the ...