Articles by Nishtar

November 1.8, 1967 is still prevalent in many parts of the country. In his report on "Package Programme and Tenurial Conditions" Wolf Ladejinsky pointed out that in Thanjavur district tenants have to part with upto 70 to 75 per cent of the produce. This is confirmed by S K Basu whose study of implementation of land reforms in West Bengal has revealed that tenants have to bear the full cost of all inputs and still get only half of the produce. Naturally, a crop- sharer needs the assurance that any extra input on his part will bring a return worth more than twice the additional input where the sharing is 50:50. The number of plots which show losses from the use of improved seeds increase when we introduce the tenancy system.

October 28, 1967 tries and aid to them, was in large part due to the need for containing communism. International Commodity Agreements and other efforts at stabilising terms of trade of underdeveloped countries have so far failed. Aid has flowed chiefly from government to government and international organisations are dominated by power blocs. Recently it has been made clear that the era of aid without strings has ended! Therefore, while expressing sincere thanks for the aid received during recent years, the underdeveloped countries should realise that the size and shape of future aid will depend mostly on political developments. Therefore, developing countries will be ill- advised to treat aid as an essential resource in their plans of development. They will have to adopt an 'opportunist

Oilseed Prices Rise Nishtar OILSEEDS and oil prices have hardened further. Castor and cottonseed futures

\y invested in growth scrips, since the relaxation of laws relating to investment of their funds.
The Central Provident Fund Act covers only factory workers. Provident funds of other categories of employees are managed by trustees nominated by employers and employees. These funds have also to invest their monies entirely in Government bonds. The total amount and yearly accretions to these funds are also considerable. The liberalisation of approved investments for the Central fund will have to be extended to these funds also. This would, however, raise the question of judicious management of funds by the respective trustees and might create possibilities of misuse. One approach could be to merge these funds into a central organisation, subject to investment regulations roughly similar to those applicable to LIC.

Record Groundnut Production Nishtar OILSEEDS and oil prices have risen quite substantially from the lowest levels recorded towards the end of August. Groundnut bold ready has come up from Rs 130 to Rs 159, castorseed ready from Rs 116 to Rs 124, castor futures (March) from Rs 104 to Rs 114 and cottonseed January from Rs 53 to Rs 65. Oil prices have improved by Rs 2 to Rs 6 per 10 kg with groundnut oil up from Rs 29 to Rs 35, cottonseed oil from Rs 23 to Rs 29, castor oil Commercial from Rs 25,75 to Rs 27.50 and linseed oil from Rs 35.50 to Rs 37. The current prices are, of course, well below the highest levels recorded early in the year, and the prices prevailing in August-September 1966 were very much higher