Indian parliament examines insurance Bill

NEW DELHI - Bills designed to open the Indian insurance market to foreign and private investors were launched in parliament yesterday. The launch is the next step in making the long-awaited economic reforms law. Finance minister Yashwant Sinha is confident the insurance Bill, which limits to 26% a foreign company's aggregate holding of equity shares in a joint venture with an Indian firm, will get the necessary support. Bills aimed at redefining derivative instruments as securities and thus enabling them to be traded on stock exchanges have also been introduced to parliament.