India should open up legal services: British Justice Secy

London: British Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has sought an opening up of legal services in India to allow foreign firms into the country, saying the Indian legal market “needs to change”. Clarke, Britain’s Lord Chancellor, who visited India three months ago heading a high-level legal delegation, said India has a rapidly growing economy but it is not free of problems. “The Indian legal market needs to change and India has to open up legal services,” Clarke told the Diwali banquet of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan here. [caption id=“attachment_144264” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“British Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has sought an opening up of legal services in India to allow foreign firms into the country, saying the Indian legal market “needs to change”. Stephane Mahe/Reuters”]  [/caption] Indian legal market is still not open to foreign firms, which seek alliances with Indian firms to have a presence in India and among other things serve their clients doing business in the country. Clarke said the last G20 summit in Cannes was disappointing, but in the G20 India is now a very key player. He said: “the Indian economy is growing at a rate any European economy would die for, but it’s not free of problems”. He referred to the fall of the rupee and the rising inflation in India as a case in point. However, he said the economic reforms that started in 1991 have taken India to the forefront of emerging global economic super powers, “which it now definitely is”. For the UK, he said “India is a key ally and a key player”. He noted that Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to India within weeks of taking office was not an accident. In his speech, Clarke paid tribute to the work of the Bhavan as well as the valuable contribution made by those of Indian descent to the economy of the United Kingdom. In a lighter vein, Clarke said he regretted the departure from political life of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. This left him somewhat exposed, as it reduced even further the small number of over-seventy-year-old politicians in the world of which he was one of the few left. On a more serious note, Clarke said the government would continue to forge links with India. “Let’s face it. We need good friends in these difficult times,” he said. PTI