India's economic development c.2

In this perceptive analysis of the consequences of our economic policies, Dr Ranjit Sau points out that 'the laws of capitalism are fully at work in the Indian economy despite planning and other "socialistic" interventions by the government'.

The results: 'mass poverty has increased; unemployment has crossed the mark of 20 million person-years' while a small percentage has a lifestyle that the author describes as 'the festival of the ten per cent'.

These realities are examined in the context of Third World development, in formulating alternative policies which tackle basic problems of hunger and poverty. Dr Sau discusses succinctly agrarian relations and official strategies and their impact on production, employment and class formation. He then focuses on industry and on the bourgeoisie that has come of age in the fifties and sixties. The present crisis of stagnation in agriculture and industry is analysed briefly and cogently, followed by the author's discussion of the Third World's demand for the New International Economic Order (NIEO) which visualizes a new society.