India Of The 1970s

SINCE the advent of the Seventies, there has been a spate of publications and pronouncements on one aspect or another of the possibilities of development during the Decade, in the fields of manpower, engineering, electronics, etc., each attempting to outline the penumbra of expectations, concerning a limited sphere of plan or activity. However, no general framework of reference has so far come up, giving a broad picture of the growth and development of the country's social economy as a whole system of thought and activity. This book seeks to fill the gap.

It examines basic issues against the background of a broad picture of India's political economy during the decade of the Seventies, projected from the multiple trends in various sectors of life, since Independence, with particular reference to the concept of a socialist pattern of society.

In this context, the theory and practice of Indian socialism have been critically examined, in the light of facts and experiences, also the theoretical and practical issues raised by Prof. Galbraith in The New Industrial State, more particularly, Prof. Myrdal's reflections in the Asian Drama. Such phenomenal happenings as the nationalisation of banking have been analysed in detail, in regard to the possibility of using credit regulation as a lever of economic development, and as an instrument of price control.