"New businesses will take L&T to new heights"

Over his 32 years at L&T, several challenges have been thrown at Palakkad, Kerala-born S.N. Subrahmanyan (fondly called 'Palakkadan Pattar' - a highly intelligent and educated but shrewd Brahmin). His ability to handle those challenges brought him to Naik's attention, who worked closely with him for 10 years before identifying him as his successor. How will Subrahmanyan handle the engineering behemoth? Excerpts from an interview with Nevin John:

Some of these investments are done well ahead of time. The forge shop in Hazira was timed with the execution of the civil nuclear agreement (123 agreement) with the US. But after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Parliament passed the liability clause. These things are out of our control. Today, in hindsight, people question the investment? [but] we stick with the decisions and find solutions. Similarly, we are doing case-by-case analysis. We are slowly getting out of assets like roads and ports. With the rise in defence orders, shipyard will be turned around.