Articles by B M

NEW DELHI 'Operation Rescue' B M THE revival of sick units is now accepted as a major preoccupation of the union industry ministry as part of its drive to achieve, a 10 per cent rate of growth in industrial production in the current year. However, ideas in regard to "operation rescue'' of sick units have apparently undergone some change. It is no longer regarded as wise or economic to take over the management of sick units as was done in the past in the case of many sick textile mills and other factories. As is shown by the balance sheet of the National Textile Corporation, which manages the taken-over textile units, the cost of running these units is quite considerable. The programme which has now been drawn up for reviving sick units envisages support and assistance to their managements on a generous scale to overcome their difficulties. It envisages rescheduling of outstanding debts, granting of fresh loans on soft, tenns and at subsidised rates of interest and supply of machinery and parts by public sector units on deferred payment basis. The programme has not been conceived of as a short-term. one-year, operation. ft will be spread over nine to ten years. Rough estimates made in the industry ministry indicate that the total cost of the programme may run to Rs 1,000 crores. Besides pumping in resources of this order, the scheme envisages further incentives by way of a dual pricing policy for additional production through better utilisation el capacity, such as have been offered to the sugar industry. To begin with, Rs 100 crores will be committed for the purpose tin's year, of which Rs 50 crores are proposed to be earmarked for DGTD units.

Chief Ministers and Land Reforms B M THE Chief Ministers' conference last week convened by the Prime Minister to review the implementation of the 20- point programme, concerned itself closely with the vital issue of land reforms. This was the most important item on the agenda of the conference. The record was, admittedly, far from satisfactory. At the end of the two- day deliberations the conference announced the determination of the Chief Ministers to carry out a time- bound programme of action on land reforms. It decided, in particular, to complete the implementation of land Ping laws by June 30, the deadline to which the Chief Ministers had earlier pledged themselves at the conference convened in August last year by the Congress president. This was a bold commitment on the part of the political leadership, especially because the progress in this direction has not been particularly impressive in the last eight months.

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY Annual Number February 1976 Reviving the Plan?
B M WITH price stability restored for the time being and easier conditions on the agricultural front, the question of revival of the Fifth Five-Year Plan is at last receiving some attention. The Minister of Planning, I K Gujral, had told Parliament earlier this month that in the favourable conditions which have now emerged it would be possible to resume work on giving final shape to the Fifth Plan. The Prime Minister too has found occasion recently to say a few words in defence of planning and the gains of planning. These have come as a much-needed morale-booster for the denizens of Yojana Bhavan.

From the American standpoint, the year 1975 thus has been not the year of Vietnam but rather a post-Vietnam year. It has been a year of order. Portugal has been taken care of. Angola is on the threshold of partition. The two Koreas like the two Germanys have come to stay. The anti-imperialist pur- suers of non-capitalist path of develop-" ment have been quite charming and co-operative. Kissinger can now plan his memoirs. He can also organise further sale of wheat to the Soviets so that their buns can taste better! FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS NEW DELHI Paving the Way for a 'Soft' Budget B M ONE of the highlights of the economic policy resolution passed at the plenary session of the Congress at Chandigarh is the reaffirmation of the party's commitment to the special Indian variant of socialism resting on a mixed economy. This has been further elaborated now by with the tagging on of an ingenious new qualification of a ''socially conscious" private sector playing a useful role in accelerating the development process. This is not an altogether new idea, of course. A large industrial group had some time, ago urged differential treatment of the socially conscious and the anti-social elements in the business community in the enforcement of government controls and regulations and the distribution of incentives and concessions.

per cent in 1973-74. Thus profit margins and profitability of industry in the private sector were generally much better in the Fourth Plan period than they were at any time in the past' The higher profit margins were made possible by certain factors external to the private corporate sector and certain others internal to it. Externally, the injection of vast amounts of money through bank lending to government, government-owned corporations and private commercial enterprises helped the private corporate sector to appropriate a larger share of aggregate money incomes. The period under consideration saw a disproportionately large expansion of money supply. Money supply grew by 8 per cent in 1968-69 and 10.5 per cent in 1969-70; in the next four years it rose by 11.8 per cent, 14 per cent, 15.7 per cent and 15.2 per cent, respectively. In the five years of the Fourth Plan taken together, money supply rose by as much as Rs 5,070 crores, or by 100 per cent During the same period, the wholesale prices index for all commodities (base: 1961-62= 100) rose by 72 per cent.