Srinagar, Oct 5 (IANS): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Friday expressed his admiration and high regards for Ratan Tata, saying the Tata Group chairman was someone that he had always looked forward to playing host to.

"Hosting Mr Ratan Tata for breakfast at home in a few minutes. He's someone I have a lot of admiration for so am looking forward to this," he tweeted Friday morning.

However, as Tata reached here with a group of other top corporate honchos, his breakfast meeting with the chief minister had to be deferred because of Tata's tight schedule.

"Mr. Tata was to go to the University with (Congress general secretary) Rahul Gandhi. He reached here around 10 a.m. Although he met the chief minister, the two could not have breakfast together. They are likely to meet for lunch later today," official sources told IANS.

On Gandhi's initiative to bridge the gap between the Indian corporate world and Kashmiri youths, Tata had a fruitful two-hour long interactive session with the students of Kashmir University at a jam-packed auditorium at the varsity's Hazratbal campus.

The Tata Group chairman promised to launch internship programmes for Kashmiri students to further their employment prospects.

Replying to a question from a local student during the interaction, Tata said: "We always look for people with merit. Tata Group of companies will get into contact with the University of Kashmir to launch an internship programme so that the local students can work side by side for permanent employment. It is a commitment given by me".

"We shall have these internship programmes in Kashmir, for Kashmiris and by Kashmiris," he said to loud applause from the gathering.

Other top names from the corporate world present at the interaction were K.M. Birla of Aditya Birla Group, Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, Deepak Parekh of HDFC, and Ashoka Reddy of MindTree job consultancy/placement company.