INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced sweeping changes to foreign investment rules yesterday, watering down regulations in 15 sectors.

Mr Modi, of the Hindu supremacist BJP, said the changes would “further ease, rationalise and simplify” foreign investors’ bids to snap up big chunks of India’s economy.

Foreigners will be able to grab greater stakes in industries including manufacturing, defence, broadcasting, construction and civil aviation.

Overseas businesses will also be allowed to completely control plantation, shopping centre and satellite and cable TV companies. Single-brand retailers and duty-free shops can also be fully controlled from abroad.

Private banks are also up for grabs, offering up to 74 per cent provided “there is no change of control and management.”

Department of Industry secretary Amitabh Kant called the measures a “Diwali gift for investors.

“This is the biggest bang reform of the government,” he said, recalling the 1980s financial reforms of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher which have allowed the rich to grab even more for themselves at the expense of everyone else.

The BJP’s weakening of investment rules follows similar changes in the insurance industry earlier this year and a decision by the previous Congress government in 2012 to open up multibrand retailers, like US giant Wal-Mart, to foreign control.

Both measures sparked protests and strikes across India against the threat of a foreign takeover. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that they be axed.