DHAKA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the world to set up their business in his country and to manufacture more goods from there.

He made the urge on Friday morning from Delhi's imposing Red Fort, during an extempore maiden Independence Day speech.

Modi said there "Come, make in India. Sell anywhere, but manufacture here. We have the skill and the talent."

The bullet proof glass that previous Indian Prime Ministers have stood behind was conspicuous by its absence as Modi reached out - not just to investors, but also to political rivals.

"We want to move forward not on the basis of majority but on consensus," he said there.

Wearing a cream short-sleeved kurta and a red safa or turban, Modi reiterated the commitments that powered his campaign for the national election this year - a focus on creating jobs and attracting investment.

He once again stressed on good governance and development as the core strength of democracy and said his priority was "people private partnership" where the young would create many jobs.

In another break with tradition, more than 10,000 members of the public were present at the Red Fort; the occasion is usually reserved for VIPs.

The Indian Prime Minister began by stating that he is "not the pradhan mantri (prime minister) but the pradhan sevak (prime servant)," promising that his government, now three months old, will serve, not rule.

In a speech high on emotional content, he also said that it was a tribute to Indian democracy that "a person from a poor family, an ordinary family is today addressing the nation from the Red Fort."

He described himself at that time as an "outsider in Delhi, not liked by the city's elite."

However, the Indian Prime Minister talked less about policy or schemes, and more about the need for urgent social fixes.

He talked about communal and caste violence as an obstacle to growth besides about the shame of rape and female feoticide in his country.

"Don't kill daughters in the womb. It is a blot on 21st century India," he said there.

"Let us take a pledge to defeat poverty," the Indian Prime Minister said, also announcing a 'people wealth scheme'  (jan dhan yojna) to ensure all Indians can have a bank account, while blaming the high level of suicides among farmers on their inability to pay back money-lenders.

** Modi says India shamed by rape 

BDST: 1533 HRS, AUG 15, 2014