By Subramaniam Sharma

New Delhi - General Electric (GE), the world's biggest company, is seeking to acquire financial and industrial businesses in India to take advantage of faster growth in Asia's fourth-biggest economy and increase sales.

GE would grow in India through "acquisitions both in the financial services and industrial side", chief executive Jeff Immelt said in New Delhi yesterday.

"It is going to be more localisation of technology and manufacturing capability as we try to pursue the market."

GE has said 60 percent of its revenue would come from outside the US in the next decade. It aims to tap faster economic growth in the world's second-most populous nation.

The $655 billion (R4.25 trillion) Indian economy expanded 6.9 percent in the year to March. The government predicts a 7 percent expansion this fiscal year.

"A very progressive and stable environment exists in India," Immelt said."A continuing, growing middle class allows more consumerism and more demand and drives competitiveness on all fronts."

Immelt said investments would depend on "opportunity" without specifying how much GE would invest in India to buy companies or businesses and to set up manufacturing facilities.

GE Money, the company's financial arm, last week said it would spend 450 million rupees (R422.5 million) to increase the number of branches in India to 228 from 118.

In March, Scott Bayman, who heads the company's Indian business, had said GE was waiting for the central bank to clarify before deciding whether to buy an existing lender or set up a new bank.

The central bank has to clarify what type of banks can be purchased. Growth in lending in India, fuelled by higher incomes, is attracting overseas investors. Indian companies are taking out loans to invest in plants and machinery to meet increasing demand for products and services.

Bank loans in India rose 31 percent to 11.42 trillion rupees in the year to March, according to central bank data, the biggest rise since 1971.

GE has been in India since 1902, when it installed the country's first hydroelectric plant. In 1930 it set up International General Electric to sell products and services.

GE said its annual revenue in India was about $800 million. Along with its affiliates, it employs 22 000 people in India. GE set up joint ventures with local companies when India started opening its economy in 1991.

It took a 10 percent stake in Dabhol Power, the now-stalled Indian power plant founded by Enron. In 1997 it set up customer contact centre operations in the country, selling a 60 percent stake in the business in November. The company wants to end the dispute over Dabhol.

"We want to work very constructively and very flexibly to resolve this in a positive way," Immelt said. Construction firm Bechtel and GE, which together built the $3 billion power plant, each owned a 10 percent stake in Dabhol.

The plant shut down in 2001 after its sole customer, a utility owned by the Maharashtra state government, refused to pay bills saying the tariff was too high.

Immelt has made more than $60 billion in acquisitions since 2001, while shedding businesses with $15 billion in sales.