Special Economic Zones in India are areas declared as quasi foreign territory in which private enterprises can benefit from a lucrative package of tax and regulatory exemptions. Claimed to promote exports and foreign exchange earnings, they are also criticised as merely encouraging the relocation of existing firms, causing a loss of tax revenue and the undermining of workers' rights. They can also been seen as a policy response to commercial pressure on land, allowing the state to act as an agent for private companies in making prime real estate available to the latter through forced acquisition. They have thus met with nationwide resistance from local communities faced with displacement from their land. A Special Economic Zone (“SEZ”) is a specified, delineated and duty-free geographical region that has different economic laws from those of the country in which it is situated. In some countries, such a region is even treated as a deemed foreign territory.