Faith in Private Sector

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Grams Econweekly Editor Krishna Raj Associate Editor Rajani X Desai Assistant Editor M S Prabhakar Editorial Staff Colin de Souza, K Vijayakumar Manager J K Thakkar Advertisement Manager R Venkiteswaran THE Industry Ministry's annual report last year had claimed that the ministry was engaged in attempts to create "an industrial environment" in which the country would be able to achieve and sustain high growth rates of industrial production and that towards this end ''actions have been taken to streamline procedures, to provide flexibility where it is needed, and to regulate production and/or consumption in areas where it is necessary to do so in order to maximise the social gains from productive activity". The latest annual report of the ministry, for 1975-76 reiterates that the policy changes introduced in the last two years or so "have been designed to bring about improvement in the utilisation of existing capacity and to provide flexibility in production by cutting out procedural delays, while at the same time ensuring allocation of resources and diverting investment to high priority areas". The report contains a detailed narration of the changes, or rather liberalisations, effected in various aspects of industrial policy. What is missing is an examination of the rationale of these changes and a perspective of industrial development in the next few years.