Under attack from the Left for its SEZ policy, the government said it will retain focus on farm sector but will pursue policies for major industrialisation and those displaced will be rehabilitated.

"It is true that the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial economy has always been a difficult one. It is essential that we create new employment opportunities outside of agriculture," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in his address on Independence Day.

He said that the government was giving final shape to a National policy for Rehabilitation and Resettlement for those displaced by major projects. "Industrialisation offers new opportunities and hope, especially for people in rural areas displaced by agrarian change," he added.

But he said that it was the responsibility of the government to ensure that the displacement did not lead to impoverishment and those who lose land do not lose livelihood.

The government's policy on Special Economic Zones has been under fire from Left parties, which has accused industrial units of depriving farmers of their livelihood.

Asserting that poverty eradication was feasible through higher economic growth, the Prime Minister said: "If employment generation was the best weapon against poverty, then industrialisation is the most effective means to create new job opportunities."

The government will pursue policies that would help the country's rapid industrialisation. However, this would require the first rate highways, railways, airports and power.

Besides this would also require skill upgradation. Government is launching a Mission on Vocational Education and Skill Development and open 1,600 new industrial training institutes and polytechnics.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com

Bear, Stearns & Co Inc is in talks to buy a Ford Motor Co financing unit in India as a way to secure an additional licence to beef up what it can offer clients in that expanding market.

"We are in advanced discussions with Ford but it is too early to confirm the outcome," a London-based spokeswoman for the US-based bank said on Wednesday.

Because India is not issuing new licences to sell financial products into the country, a secondary market for them has opened up.

Bear Stearns is already registered as a foreign institutional investor in India and offers some services, such as buying Indian equity for overseas clients, but it cannot sell other products into the market.

"We are looking at ways of building our presence in India as an important factor in our international growth plans," the spokeswoman said. "We are keen to identify the best way to build on our existing services to clients in India."

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy the institutional equities business of Indian brokerage Brics Securities for an undisclosed sum, another sign of the growing interest by banks in the market.

India has about 1,050 registered foreign institutional investors, data from the market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India showed, with 32 asset management firms managing over Rs 4 trillion.

The list of foreign institutional investors operating in India include Citigroup, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com