Tata Motors, India's largest vehicle maker which shot to international prominence when it bought British motoring icons Jaguar and Land Rover earlier this year, did not attend the talks.
Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata warned last month he would move the plant out of West Bengal if the demonstrations continued, even though Tata Motors has poured 350 million dollars into the project.
The plant in Singur is 90 percent complete, and Tata Motors has said it aims to launch the Nano in October. Protests have been going on for two years against the plant. But demonstrations got uglier in the past few weeks, with protesters besieging the factory and threatening workers.
The stand-off reflects a wider dispute between farmers and industry over land rights across the nation. On one side are many farmers who say they will starve without their land, while business and government say India must industrialise swiftly to create jobs to employ the army of young people joining the work force.
The Nano, with its innovative light-weight engineering, was conceived by Ratan Tata to get poor Indians off motorcycles and into safer cars. Business leaders have warned the hostile reception to the plant could hurt India’s image as an emerging economic superpower and viable investment destination.
India’s largest commercial vehicle maker by sales Tata Motors rose 3.47 per cent to Rs 440.35. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on 26 August 2008 his government may compensate farmers at Tata Motors' factory in Singur to resolve a dispute over the Nano car plant.
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