This was stated byMinister for Chemicals, Fertilizer and Steel, Ram Vilas Paswan, at a pressconference held at the India House here on Fridaynight.

"Under the scheme, whichis currently before the Cabinet, Government would spend about Rs 3000 crores perannum to provide free medicines to 250 million people below the poverty line,"Paswan said.

Paswan, whoreturned here on Friday after a three-day visit to Luxembourg and Netherlands,said there was vast potential for mutual cooperation between India and Luxemburgin many sectors other than steel and financial services such as PlasticProcessing Technology and making Luxembourg a hub for the European market forpharmaceuticals.

The Minister,heading a high-level delegation of leading public and private sector steelmanufacturers in India, said the issue came up during his discussions withJeannot Krecke, Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade ofLuxembourg.

He said he hadassured Krecke that India would send a delegation comprising representatives ofPharma Industries and Plastics industries to Luxembourg to explore possibleareas of cooperation including technologysharing.

Indian HighCommissioner Kamalesh Sharma, Union Steel Secretary R S Pandey and Chairman ofSteel Authority of India Ltd S K Roongta were also present during the pressconference.

With Luxembourgbeing one of the major global centres of steel making, Krecke said, it would bewilling to extend necessary technological assistance to the Indian steelindustry in modernising and expanding capacities in order to achieve betterproductivity in a cost effectivemanner.

One of theimportant missions of the delegation was to scout for the latest technology toimprove blast furnace efficiency of India's steel plants as the county plannedto step up its steel production from the current 42 million tonnes per annum to65 million tonnes by 2012.

Inthis connection, Paswan already had discussions with NRI steel tycoon LakshmiMittal and Chief Executive of Corus Philippe Varin here lastTuesday.

During his meetingwith Paswan, Mittal had apprised him of his investment plans for India. Mittalis in talks with the State Governments of Jharkhand and Orissa for setting up a12 million tonne capacity steelplant.

The Steel Ministerreplied in the negative when asked whether India apprehended possibilities ofany hostile takeover of Indian steel plants by multinationals. "There is no suchapprehension," he said.

Askedabout reports that Mittal was being given a preferential treatment in thecountry, Paswan said "we are providing a level-playing field for every one andwe are not discriminating against any company - private orpublic."

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