What does that mean in terms of government spending on infrastructure slowing down?
Naik: It could hurt in 2010 and 2011. Q: By how much; because it’s an election year and you have been through an election year before and you know what it is like? Naik: Elections will be in 2009 but decision making slows down till the new government is formed. We have to see the situation, whether it will be soon or a little longer and we will look at avenues to make up for a possible slowdown that might impact in 2010 and 2011. Q: So for now, it’s business as usual. L&T maintains its guidance of a 30% of revenue growth for this fiscal. The next year’s worst case scenario is about 25% of growth. But the financial year 2011 is uncertain. In the last two years, the profit margin has jumped sharply from 7.2% to about 11.4% and this year will it stay there? Naik: There are pressures on pricing because we have covered the cost of raw materials. We have learnt bitter lessons and therefore we do not take any order and even the government’s orders nowadays have a price variation on basic mate
