Agencies/Bangalore  
US billionaire Warren Buffett sits in a golf cart with others as he arrives to address a press conference in Bangalore yesterday
US billionaire investor Warren Buffett, on his maiden visit to India, said yesterday he was looking at investing in the fast-growing nation. The chairman of investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, which last week bought US lubricant maker Lubrizol for $9bn, said “we need to make large commitments so India is a very logical place to look.” Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha” for his investment savvy, added that he did not consider India with its $1.3tn economy “as an emerging market, I consider India a very big market.” “We hope to spend some money here,” said Buffett, whose company had amassed around $38bn in cash by the end of 2010. Buffett was speaking in India’s high-tech hub of Bangalore.Berkshire, which started selling insurance to Indian consumers this month after forging an agreement with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, will keep doing business in India in that form for the foreseeable future as the government caps foreign ownership in insurance companies to 26 percent, Buffett said.“India would be more attractive if we could buy more than 26%,” said Buffett. “That is a factor in the decision of not investing.”India aims to raise the limit in the insurance industry to attract companies in the $41bn market, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the nation’s Planning Commission said in December. He didn’t give a timeframe.Allianz SE, Aviva Plc and ING Groep NV are among the global insurers that will be able to invest in their Indian ventures if the limit is raised in an industry that the Life Insurance Council forecasts is expanding 34% annually.Nippon Life Insurance Co, Japan’s biggest life insurer, on March 14 agreed to buy a 26% stake in India’s Reliance Life Insurance Co to boost business overseas. Buffett arrived in India yesterday to join Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in seeking to persuade India’s super-rich to part with some of their wealth as part of “The Giving Pledge” campaign started by the two tycoons last year. Gates and Buffett, who went on a similar mission to China last September, are to meet with wealthy Indians tomorrow in New Delhi. Buffett, who has an estimated net worth of $50bn, said the pair planned to talk to business leaders “about what we have done. If it seems like a good idea (to them) - terrific. “If it doesn’t they will have gotten a free dinner,” he joked. Gates, who has an estimated net worth of $56bn and has put much of his money into the Gates Foundation, and Buffett have teamed up to persuade rich Americans to give away at least half of their wealth. So far 59 have signed up to “The Giving Pledge.” Buffett, who has pledged 99% of his wealth to charity, said he had never given away a dollar “that has changed my life. I have never not gone to a movie or taken my family on a vacation.”