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Wipro chief stress on core sector growth

Our Bureau

BANGALORE, Dec. 12

SPEED is going to become the essential requisite for the survival of the construction equipment industry as time to market and deadlines for infrastructure projects become important.

Stating this here at the inauguration of EXCON 2000 here on Tuesday, Mr Azim H. Premji, Chairman of Wipro, said the much talked about IT industry could not grow without the help of this industry, especially as infrastructure, namely roads, port and airpo rts had to be augmented to cope with growth in ESOP wealth.

``There are going to be more cars on the roads and more seats required on airplanes and more traffic in and out of ports as imports and exports grow,'' he said adding the he saw a bright future for the industry and its ancillaries.

Mr Keith Ellis, President Asia markets, Volvo Construction Company, said that with the emphasis on infrastructure development, the pace was growing and he too added that there would an increasing demand on the speed of construction with time and cost of a project being of prime importance.

Mr K. Ogimoto, Senior Vice-President and COO Hitachi Construction Machinery, said the Indian machinery had not attained international standards and seemed to be concentrating mainly on the local market instead of competing in the world market.

Mr Anil Kumar Epur, Chairman CII, (Southern region), said the Indian industry was facing competition from the MNCs and had to become competitive to grow.

Mr Sarosh J. Ghandy, Chairman, EXCON 2000, said that India had sold only 5,500 pieces of equipment five years ago, while 82,000 pieces of construction equipment had been sold in Japan alone, which gave an idea of how large the market was.

Mr Ravi Uppal, Chairman CII, Karnataka, stressed the need for better technology for the industry to grow.

Pic.: The Chairman of Wipro, Mr Azim Premji, flanked by the Chairman EXCON 2000, Mr Sarosh J. Ghandy (left), and Chairman, CII-Karnataka, Mr Ravi Uppal, in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Picture by Saggere Ramaswamy