India will introduce legislation in parliament this week to ease the acquisition of land for infrastructure development and industrial use in a country that suffers severe food insecurity, a senior cabinet minister has said.

Kamal Nath, minister of road transport and highways, said land acquisition was one of the most vexed problems in the industrialisation of Asia’s third largest economy. Large industrial projects and special economic zones have repeatedly run aground over land disputes as policymakers try to diversify a traditional agrarian economy. Government and private sector purchases have been strongly opposed by the rural poor, who view them as land grabs deepening their deprivation.