Oil : rich man poor man

This important new book from the pen of a distinguished writer comes as a much-needed aid to an understanding of the economics and politics of the petroleum industry.

While it covers the global view of the oil industry, its main aim is to present the subject in relation to India, both in the particular Indian context and also as representative of the situation of a developing nation trying to progress towards economic and industrial self-reliance.

The book will help the serious student taking a course in economics, in political science, in public adminis tration, or in industrial management, by providing an in-depth introduction to the subject of oil and its involvement in politics, in economics, and in ad ministration and management. It is also addressed to the lay reader, to have a fuller understanding of the problems and issues that are so frequently discussed in Parliament, in the Press, and in general.

For convenience of eatment, the book is divided into three parts: Part I is a series of introductory chapters, which deal with energy demands, the petroleum resources of India, the Indian experience with oil refineries, and a short chapter which enables the layman to see into the apparent mysteries of oil technology.

Part II deals with the first of the two main problem groups that lie at the heart of whole subject of oil. In ten chapters the author examines the record in the pricing of oil and petro leum products, up to and beyond the price explosion of the 1970s.