PLANNED ECONOMY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 23, 28 January 1939, Page 11

PLANNED ECONOMY.

MOVEMENT IN INDIA. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. ; COMMITTEE STARTS WORK. (From Our Own Correspondent.) MADRAS, January 9. j It is a commonplace statement that India is a poor nation despite her wealthy resources and immense manpower. This paradox is due essentially to the fact that she is an agricultural country with conservative modes of thought and with her treasures untapped, buried underground. While in England 80 per cent of the population! is returned as urban and industrial,! India (with her population of 440,000,000,1 which exceeds two-thirds of the total population of the British Empire) presents the contrast with her 90 per cent of the population remaining rural and agricultural. As the Indian peasant i® intensely conservative in his methods he has not taken the aid of modern science to increase the yield of his crops. A rough estimate of the average income per head of the Indian population is about £3 a year, while that of Britain is £40. The reason for this is that the industrial revolution which made the West rich during the last century has not yet taken place in India. But she is the land of promise; however poor she may be to-day, she is full of immense latent possibilities. The abnormal conditions of the Great War revealed India's potentialities and her industrial resources were tapped by British capital, enterprise and business skill. And the industries started during the war continued even in times ol peace, but with a difference. With a gradual return to normal conditions, th< sentiment "India for Indians" as far su industries were concerned (popularly called the Swadeshi movement) developed rapidly, and native enterprise: were started. But as the developmeni *yna neither regular nor systematic

India is now suffering more from the defects of industrialisation than enjoying its fruits. That the emergence of new social and economic factors in modern India necessitates readjustment on an unprecedented scale cannot be over emphasised. The autonomous governments in the eleven provinces of India have realised the need for a planned economy for the industrial regeneration of the land. A conference of the industries ministers of the Provincial Governments was held recently in Delhi to seek a new economic policy which will harmonise the existing economic organisation with newer factors. National Planning Committee. The conference was of opinion that the present-day problems of poverty and unemployment in India could not be solved without industrialisation. It resolved that as a step towards such industrialisation, a comprehensive scheme of national planning should be formulated. The scheme is to provide jfor the development of heavy key industries, medium scale industries and cottage 'industries, keeping in view the national requirements, the resources of the country as also the peculiar circumstances prevailing in the country. It was for the purpose of drawing up a comprehensive industrial map of India that a planning committee was sug • gested and its personnel was announced : bv Mr. Subhas Chandra Bose, the pre ■ sident of the All-India National Con gress. The committee consists of thi ! following nine members:—Sir M. Vis i weswarayya. Dr. Meghnad Meghand . . i;Saha, Sir Purushottamdas Thakurdas ■Mr. Ambalal Sarabhai, Professor K. T ! Shah, Dr. Nazir Ahmed, Mr. A. E )j Shroff, Mr. A. K. Saha (an enginee ; under the Soviet Government), and Dr. ; V. S. Dube, of the Benares Hindu Uni- ; versity. Pandit' Jawaharlal Nehru, exPresident of the Indian National Conl gress, is the chairman. 1 1 The committee met last week in r Bombay for five days and decided as 3 to the lines on which its work should - be conducted. It prepared a questionf naire for securing information from the i different provinces as also the States a; regarding the industrial resources of a each. The committee may later visit f the different provinces and States for I, personal investigation. After studying s the industrial possibilities of the whole t of India, the committee will suggest s, which industries should be undertaken I

on an all-India basis, and which on provincial and cottage basis. The final report may be ready in six months. The nest step will be the establishment of an All-India National Planning Commission into which the committee will merge. The Planning Committee's report will be submitted to the Working Committee (executive), of the Indian National .Congress and the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission which will come into being after about six months will consist of a nominee of the Government of each province and Indian State, four representatives of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, a representative of the All-India Village Industries Association and all members of the Planning Committee. The Questionnaire. The questionnaire prepared by tha Planning Committee seeks to elicit opinion on questions like an adequate standard of living, the principal sources of production in the Indian States and the British Indian Provinces, the avail- ! ability of raw materials, requirements of industrial development, agricultural organkatioh and industries subsidiary to agriculture, marketing and commerce, transport facilities, conditions of field employment, technical education, resources of power and energy and ■ economic relations between the various ' provinces. It has been addressed ' mainly to Provincial Governments, the ' Indian States, organisation of trades, - industries, commerce, agricultural inter- - ests, firms and corporations as well as •to - individuals who have devoted . thought and study to the general qnw- - tion of all-round national planning for • the economic regeneration of the r countrv.

The standard of achievement and the period within which that achievement is to be made may for the sake of illustration be laid down as at least to double the present standard of living, including not only the necessaries, but ako the amemtie»_ civilised existence to be achieved definite period of five or teny®* most. In view of the inproblem and the heavy w the posed upon the Indian fc P e^ |||^>a of existing F li— the problem of development *° aU ?, mora tune than S I. **»