Amid the ongoing global financial crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday appealed to top Indian industrialists not to go for large scale lay-offs which may lead to a ‘negative spiral’.

With worries about the Indian stock markets, and the impact of the liquidity crunch on Indian industry, the prime minister has set up a special cell to deal with the industry's grievances, take their suggestions and implement them.

The panel will have the finance minister, commerce minister and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

He met Mukesh Ambani, Anand Mahindra, K V Kamath, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Deepak Parikh, Shashi Ruia, K P Singh and Rajkumar Dhoot to discuss the state of economy.

The prime minister asked business leaders to remain confident and keep its social obligations in mind and assured them the government will do all it can to protect the growth rate and said top priority currently for his government is to safeguard the Indian financial system.

“We hope that the Indian corporate sector will not let the global crisis shake its confidence. While every effort needs to be made to cut costs and raise productivity," he said.

Besides, CII's Kamath, FICCI President Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Assocham chief Sajjan Jindal represented their chambers and urged the Prime Minister to give direction for enhancing liquidity in the system and restore confidence by lowering the interest rates.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and RBI Governor D Subbarao were on the sides of the Prime Minister for the interaction with the industry to explore options for pushing the economic growth in difficult times.

Senior government officials, including Chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Suresh Tendulkar and Economic Affairs Secretary Ashok Chawla were among those who attended the meeting.