INDIA

FORTY YEARS OF
INDEPENDENCE

PUBLICATIONS DIVISION
MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
July 1989 (Asadha 1911)

©Publications Division

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the government

PUBLISHED BY THE DIRECTOR PUBLICATIONS DIVISION

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
PATIALA HOUSE NEW DELHI-110 001

Sales Emporia • Publications Divison

Super Bazar Connaught Circus New Delhi-110001

Commerce House Currimbhoy Road Ballard Pier Bombay-400 038
8 Esplanade East Calcutta-700 069
LLA Auditorium Anna Salai Madras-600 002
Bihar State Co-operative Bank Building
Ashoka Rajpath Patna-800 004
Press Road Trivandrum-695 001
10-B Station Road Lucknow-226 019
State Archaelogical Museum Building
Public Garden Hyderabad-500 004
Printed at India Offset Press, New Delhi-110 064
 Publisher’s Note

Forty years of Independence is something we can look back with pride

though there is much more to look forward to in terms of achievement. As a
sovereign, democratic and secular nation India embarked on planned
development and made considerable progress in various spheres like
agriculture, science, technology and industry. The country launched many
welfare schemes to help the weak and the down-trodden. Though the
progress is uneven and the gaps are many the changing scene is impressive.
Recently the Government has announced many more welfare schemes to
be implemented with invigorated effort at grass roots to correct the
imbalances and to uplist the rural poor.
We requested eminent persons in various fields to recapture growth and
change in the form of articles. Many responded. The result is “India—Forty
years of Independence”. We do not claim that the topics covered here are
exhaustive. But the articles will certainly help the reader to have a glimpse of
the progressing nation and the strides it is taking towards its set goals. I am
grateful to all the contributors for responding so warmly to our request
without whose co-operation we could not have succeeded in bringing out this
book.

Dr. S.S. Shashi

DIRECTOR
PUBLICATIONS DIVISION
 Contents

1. Four Decades of Development L.K. Jha

2. Planning in India C.H. Hanumantha Rao
3. Green Revolution and After M.V. Rao
4. Health for All Harcharan Singh
&
A.K. Kundu
5. What Have We Done for India’s Children? Tara Ali Baig
6. Story of Rural Development S.R. Maheshwari
7. Tribals—Partners in Development R.C.Verma
8. Towards Shelter for All Mohsina Kidwai
9. Strengthening Weaker Sections B.D. Sharma
10. Atomic Energy for Peace M.R. Srinivasan
11. Application of Space Technology U.R.Rao
12. Growth of Trade and Commerce D.D. Guru
13. Industrial Development in India Nirmal Ganguly
14. Railways: The Life-Line of the Nation Raj Kumar Jain
15. Road Transport — An Overview R.C. Sinha
16. Civil Aviation : Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Y.P. Bawa
17. Promoting Tourism S.K. Misra
18. Communication for Development P.N. Malhan
19. Preserving Cultural Heritage Kapila Vatsyayan
20. Defence in India
 Contributors

The late Shri L.K. Jha was Member of Parliament and Chairman of
Commission on Economic Efficiency, Productivity and Exports, New Delhi.

Dr. C.H. Hanumantha Rao, formerly Member, Planning Commission, is

Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi.

Dr. M.V. Rao is Special Director General (Oil seeds), Indian Council of
Agricultural Research, New Delhi.

Dr. Harcharan Singh is Adviser, Health & Family Welfare, Planning

Commission, New Delhi.

Dr. A.K.Kundu is Deputy Adviser, Health & Family Welfare, Planning

Commission, New Delhi.

Shrimati Tara Ali Baig, President, SOS Children’s Villages of India, New
Delhi, is associated with several national and international organisations
connected with Child Welfare.

Dr. S.R. Maheshwari is Professor of Political Science and Public

Administration, Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.

Shri R.C. Verma is Director, Tribal Development, Ministry of Welfare,

New Delhi.

Shrimati Mohsina Kidwai is Union Minister of Urban Development.

Dr. B.D. Sharma is Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled

Tribes, New Delhi.

Dr. M.R. Srinivasan is Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and

Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, New Delhi.

Dr. U.R. Rao is Chairman, Department of Space, Indian Space Research

Organisation, Bangalore.

Dr. D.D. Guru is Professor of Economics, ANS Institute of Social Studies,

Patna.

Dr. Nirmal Ganguly, an officer of Indian Economic Service, is engaged in

empirical research of industrial policy and industrial growth.

Shri Raj Kumar Jain is Chairman, Railway Board, New Delhi.

Shri R.C. Sinha is Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information and

Broadcasting, New Delhi.

Shri Y.P. Bawa is Director, Research and Development, Civil Aviation

Department, New Delhi.

Shri S.K. Misra is Secretary, Department of Tourism, New Delhi.

Professor P.N. Malhan, formerly Head of the Department of Journalism,

Osmania University, is Professor at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, New Delhi

Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan is Member Secretary, Indira Gandhi National Centre

for Arts, New Delhi.
 Four Decades of Development

L.K. Jha

Since 1947, when India became independent, the country has been
engaged in a major developmental effort. In the first half of the century under
British rule, the trend growth rate between 1900-01 and 1945-46 had been 1.2
per cent for national income, about 0.3 per cent for agriculture and 2 per cent
for industries. There was a countrywide consensus among economists,
politicians and industrialists that once India became independent, the nation
must embark on a strategy of planned development in which both the public
sector and the private sector would play a symbiotic role. A concrete shape
had been given to this concept by the formulation of what came to be known
as the Bombay Plan to which Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Shri J.R.D. Tata, Shri
G.D. Birla and other eminent personalities had appended their signatures.
Not surprisingly therefore, very shortly after Independence, the Planning
Commission was set up to chalk out the strategy for growth with due regard
to social justice on the one hand, so that the tremendous gap between the rich
and the poor was narrowed, as well as to self-reliance, because it was realised
that political independence cannot be complete without self-reliance in the
economic field.

Rapid Industrialisation
The main thrust of the development strategy, to begin with, was on rapid
industrialisation. Agriculture by itself could not provide a tolerable standard
of living for India’s teeming millions. The main industries which had been
developed before Independence were agro-based, sugar, jute and cotton
textiles. For the rapid industrialisation of the country the public sector
assumed responsibility for developing the infrastructure as well as industries
which were capital-intensive or of strategic importance, so that the public
sector could occupy the commanding heights of the economy. At the same
time, the private sector was to be helped in every way to make its own
contribution to this mighty endeavour.
The major constraint was of resources. In a country with such low per
capita incomes and the level of savings around 10% of GNP, the capital
available for investment seemed grossly inadequate for industrialisation on a
tolerable scale. The efforts were made to mobilise resources through higher
taxation and curbs on consumption to stimulate savings. The Industrial
Finance Corporation was set up to help the private sector with long term
credit to ensure that the resources so mobilised were invested jn accordance
with plan priorities. A system of industrial licensing was introduced which
not only canalised investment in accordance with plan priorities, but gave a
spurt to entrepreneurship by assuring investors that the capacity created for
different industries will be with due regard to demand. Fortunately, with the
heavy accumulation of sterling balances during World War II, foreign
exchange was not seen by many people as a major constraint. Even so, import
licensing during the war was continued which, alongwith high import duty
imposed on revenue considerations, gave to Indian industry a highly sheltered
market in which competition, both internal and external, was carefully
regulated.
In such an environment, fifities turned out to be a decade of rapid
industrialisation, the rate of industrial growth during the first two Five Year
Plans being seven per cent, with considerable diversification of capacity
ranging from machine building industries to light consumer goods industries.
At the end of the decade, India had begun to occupy the tenth place in terms
of industrial output among the nations of the world.
In the sixties, alas, there was a setback. Two border conflicts one with
China and one with Pakistan, compelled a diversion of domestic resources
from development to defence. India’s sterling balances had already been
depleted by the end of the Second Five Year Plan and the country was
compelled to seek external assistance from the World Bank and friendly
countries to help the developmental effort. Three successive droughts in the
mid-sixties compelled the country to seek external assistance even to finance
massive imports of wheat to feed the population.
In the consequent crunch of resources, five year planning was suspended
for three years. There was a sharp cutback of public investment which led to
recessionary conditions in the industrial sector. With restrictive policies in the
fiscal and monetary sphere, the tightening of industrial and import licensing
on foreign exchange considerations and various other measures introduced,
monopolistic trends and income disparities in the economy, the rate of
growth slumped. Conditions of stagflation prevailed.
With grim determination, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave her full
support to the efforts to make the country self-sufficient in foodgrains. The
larger banks were nationalised and told to increase their lending to the
agricultural sector as well as to the smaller industrial enterprises. Legislation
to curb monopolies and restrictive trade practices was taken in hand.

Pride and Fulfilment

With a sense of pride and fulfilment on account of the Green Revolution,
the seventies saw a revival of the overall growth rate, with the agricultural
sector emerging as the major contributor to it. Industrial performance, on the
other hand, did not recapture the elan of the fifties largely because the
labyrinth of controls administered by different Government agencies had
considerably slowed down the pace of setting up new industrial enterprises.
To make matters worse, the hike in oil prices gave a serious jolt to the
economy, the response to which was an intensification of the effort to find
indigenous sources of oil, onshore and offshore. If account is taken of the
Bangladesh war, the crop failure of 1973, the two oil price shocks and other
adverse factors, the performance of the economy cannot be judged to be bad.
But, obviously, it had to be improved upon. There were many signs of
weakness in the economy. The proliferation of bureaucratic controls was
slowing down the pace of development. In the absence of competition,
industrial costs and prices were steadily on the increase. Not only was the
burden on consumer on the increase but the competitiveness of many Indian
industrial products in world markets suffered a decline.
So in the eighties a determined effort was launched to bring about reforms
in economic administration. The whole network of controls began to be
reviewed and relaxed. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi initiated these changes
and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has pursued them with vigour to create a
new environment which would encourage greater efficiency and promote
faster industrial growth. This process has often been hailed as liberalisation
of the economy.

Reforms in Economic Administration

The main changes can be briefly summarised as follows:
(a) Many of the regulatory restraints over investment and production have
been dispensed with. As many as 25 major categories of industries
have been freed from licensing restrictions, and the procedures
applicable to the rest have been streamlined.
(b) Many of the restrictions applicable to the expansion of production by
the so-called monopoly houses have also been removed or relaxed.
(c) A special effort is being made to bring about a technological
upgradation of the Indian economy by encouraging the setting up of
many high-tech industries. The import of knowhow is being more
liberally allowed.
(d) Imports are being increasingly regulated by tariffs instead of case by
case licensing.
(e) In the agricultural sector having achieved self-sufficiency in
foodgrains, vigorous efforts are on to increase the output of other food
crops, particularly oilseeds, pulses and sugar to match the growing
consumption needs of the rising population and the improvement in
the levels of per capita income.
(f) The programme for oil exploration is being intensified and new
discoveries of oil deposits onshore and offshore are providing the base
for a steady expansion of petrochemical industries with greater
reliance on indigenous crude oil.
(g) Excise and customs duties have been rationalised and the VAT
principle made applicable to lower industrial costs.
(h) The burden of direct taxation has been reduced and a long-term fiscal
policy is being evolved to impart stability to the tax structure.
 These policy initiatives have set in motion some new forces in the
economy. The reduction in the area of bureaucratic controls, which slowed
down decision-making and delayed the execution of major projects, has
speeded up economic activities. The unleashing of the forces of competition
has made industries cost-conscious and pay greater attention to improvements
in their productivity, technology and the quality of their products. Perhaps the
most spectacular evidence of the impact of these changes is provided by the
way in which the shortage of cement has been replaced by conditions of
surplus and the black market has disappeared with falling prices in the open
market.
Overall, it would be true to say that the industrial economy is in a state of
transition and a new chapter is opening. But transition is never a painless
process. Some industries are complaining of difficulties because of the
growing exposure to competition; measures to assist them in the adjustment
process are in hand.
Now, the country can look back on four decades of development since
independence with a certain feeling of pride at what has been achieved. The
highlights are :
— With the rapid increase in the production of domestic crude oil, the
import content of oil and petroleum products had declined from about
66% of the domestic consumption in 1979-80 to 31% in 1984-85 even
though the volume of consumption has been steadily rising;
— the trend growth rate of Indian economy rose from about 3% till early
’60s to a little over 4% during 70s and has averaged 5% during the
’80s;
— aggregate industrial output has increased five-fold since independence
at a compound rate of 6%, the share of basic and capital goods
industries increasing from about 15% to about 50%;
— India’s foodgrains output trebled from 50 million tonnes in 1950-51 to
over 150 million tonnes in mid ’80s;
— the savings and investment rate recorded a consistent increase and
expanded from less than 10% of the national income in the years
immediately following independence to above 22% in mid ’70s and
after;
 — over 90% of the resources needed for the development process have
been mobilised domestically with minimal reliance on external
inflows;
— in consequence, unlike many other developing countries with higher
levels of income and a more rapid pace of industrialisation, India is not
caught in a debt trap;
— over the years, India has also been assisting other developing countries
with technical and financial assistance and taking a lead in the quest for
a new international economic order.

A Long Way to Go
To say all this is not to suggest that there is any room for complacency.
We have a long way to go before endemic poverty has been vanished and the
tear in every eye has been wiped out.
Yet it would be a mistake to ignore or under-rate such progress as has
been made in reducing income disparities between the rich and the poor. At
the upper end of the scale, the industrial scenario is no longer dominated by
two or three business families. There has been a steady dispersal of the
control and management of industries and their ownership is now spread
among millions of shareholders including people of modest means and those
belonging to the agricultural sector.
Further the number of people who enjoy decent income levels,
comparable to those in developed countries, is a little above 10% of the
population, which means between 75 to 100 million people. There is an
upsurge of demand for products like detergents, synthetic fibres, domestic
electrical and cooking appliances, which are no longer looked upon as
luxuries. The production of colour television sets has gone up from 50,000 in
1983 to about 8,00,000 in 1986; of personal computers from 3,000 in 1984 to
20,000 in 1986. The public sector Maruti car which has pushed up its
production from 45,000 in 1983 to 1,10,000 in 1986 cannot cope with the
demand, and often the cars are sold with an illegal premium.
It is when attention is turned to the ‘low income’ and ‘no income’ groups
that wide differences emerge in the appraisal which different people make of
the progress or the lack of it in the drive against poverty. Some of the
controversy is undoubtedly political. Another reason for the conflicting
assessments is the methodology employed and the manner in which the
poverty line is defined.
Without going into the reliability of the yardsticks for measuring levels of
poverty, it is possible to form some broad judgements.
Not long before his death, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had spoken of the signs of
lessening of poverty which he had witnessed by pointing out that in his first
election campaign, the people came to listen to him bare-footed; in the next
election almost all of them had shoes on and in the third general election, a
large number of people came to listen to him on bicycles. If we focus on
mode of transport, we find that in the cities today, the horse-drawn vehicles
and rickshaws have given place to scooters, auto-rickshaws and buses, while
during election campaigns, political parties have to provide trucks for the
transportation of those they want to address.
A more solid evidence of overall progress is provided by the fact that the
overall expectation of life at birth has doubled, if not gone up, from 27 years
in 1950-51 to 54 years now. The increase in longevity has come about, not
because the rich live longer but because the poor are better nourished and
have better health services. The evidence of improvement in the nutritional
standards of the people is corroborated by the fact that while, with low
standards of per capita consumption on account of poverty of the people we
used to be exporters of vegetable oils and sugar, now we have to import them
in substantial quantities to meet domestic demand. Again, it would be
unsound to argue that it is the rich who have the consumption of fats or
sweeteners—indeed most of them are, under medical advice, to restrict both.
It is the entry of an altogether new class of consumers which has raised the
demand for them.
But alas, it is only too true that far too many people are poor. Up to a
point, the very success of the anti-poverty programmes in increasing their
life-span has led to an increase in the rate of population growth which is the
prime cause of the persistence of low per capita incomes. Paradoxical though
it may sound, one of the consequences of such success as is achieved in
dealing with the problem of poverty is to make the size of the problem
bigger.
Clearly then the anti-poverty programme has to be intensified. This is not
just a matter of making a larger allocation of resources for the purpose, but of
ensuring that the funds do reach the beneficiaries for whom they were
intended. Further the anti-poverty programmes should not be viewed as
simple acts of charity but as instruments to generate employment with
reasonable living wages. As things are, organised industrial labour has been
able to look after its interests rather well, but the lot of landless agricultural
labour is far worse. Likewise, surplus unproductive labour in high wage
islands like Bombay, Ahmedabad, Calcutta and public sector plants get far
greater protection than those in smaller undertakings while the jobless have to
fend for themselves.

Need for Productive Employment

While qualitative improvements in the anti-poverty programmes are
clearly needed and the Eighth Plan must give much greater importance to the
generation of productive employment, we have to guard against the advice of
the monetarists who plead for budgetary cuts in order to prevent inflationary
pressures. If we look back at our record in managing inflation, it is only
during two years in mid-sixties and again in 1973-74 that the country
suffered from double digit inflation—the reason being not an upsurge in
money supply but a sharp decline in agricultural, particularly foodgrains,
production. In all the other years, the rate of inflation was below and often
significantly lower than 10 per cent.
The question may well be asked whether even a single digit rate of
inflation is not too high and attention can also be drawn to the slow but
steady increase in the price of goods and services to satisfy the basic needs of
the people. But we must remember that as a rule in countries as they develop,
the prices of basic necessities tend to go up. Such price rises are necessary in
the interests of growth and often help more equitable income distribution. It
is when the policy of keeping foodgrains prices down was reversed that we
had the Green Revolution, on the one hand, and an improvement in the
relative position of the rural areas against the urban population. The answer
to the problem of the rising cost of living of the poor has to be found by
efforts to raise their income levels.
The onward march of the economy from poverty to decent standards of
living must be continued with renewed vigour. We have miles to go and
promises to keep.
 Planning in India

C.H. Hanumantha Rao

To understand the planning process in India, the possibilities open to it

and the constraints it faces, it is necessary to appreciate the historical context
and the socio-political framework within which planning for development is
pursued in India. A number of institutional reforms were effected after the
attainment of independence which laid the foundations for rapid
socioeconomic development and for opening up the opportunities for sharing
the benefits of development by the wider sections of our population.
The abolition of princely states and the intermediaries in land such as
jagirdars and zamindars, the security of tenure to tenants, the imposition of
ceilings on agricultural land and the distribution of surplus land among the
landless contributed to releasing the initiative of the working peasantry and
arrested the concentration of agricultural wealth in a few hands. The
nationalisation of major financial institutions including the leading
commercial banks, restriction on the growth of big business houses beyond
certain prescribed limits, and the measures to curb monopolistic and
restrictive practices together with promotional measures for household and
small-scale industries contributed to strengthening, diversifying and widening
the base of industrial development.

Competitive Coexistence
Within this broad regulatory and promotional framework, ours is a mixed
economy where there is a competitive coexistence of different social groups.
Our goals of an independent, modern and self-reliant economy and
achievement of socialism by eradicating poverty and reducing economic and
social inequalities have been pursued within a democratic political
framework characterised by adult franchise and multi-party system.
Within the broad social setting outlined above, the growth of public
investment and public sector enterprises which accounted for about half of
total investments during successive plan periods played a crucial role in
stepping up the growth of economy as well as opening up the opportunities
for wider sharing of benefits from socio-economic development. By
providing basic physical and institutional infrastructure, public sector has
provided a basis for self-reliant growth. It is highly complementary to the
private sector, including agriculture and small industry, so far as linkages in
growth and promotional role are concerned.
Public investments in human resources development in general including
education and health have contributed to releasing the initiative and
improving the productivity of the broad masses of people. At the same time,
the growth of public sector in crucial fields has contributed to arresting the
concentration of economic power in a few hands.
Whereas public investment and public policies in general do influence the
functioning of the markets in India, the direct regulation or day-to-day
interference with market mechanism is minimal. For instance, farmers in their
millions make their own investment and production decisions including how
much to market and consume within the framework of public infrastructure
provided e.g. irrigation, extension of new technology, credit etc. Even the
administered prices very often bear some rational relationship to market
situations.

Balanced Development
Besides, the planning process as it has evolved over decades, allows for
extensive and detailed interaction with different states in the country
reflecting significant regional diversity in endowments and stages of
development. The national plan finally approved through consensus by the
National Development Council representing, among others, all the state
governments reflects the hopes and aspirations of people living in diverse
situations. About half the national plan outlays are incurred in the states’
sector and central assistance for state plans accounts for nearly 30 per cent of
the outlays.
One of the major achievements of planning in India is the balanced
development between different sectors of the economy. Thanks to the
decision-making within the democratic political framework and the operation
of markets and incentives to the producers, there has been a steady
relationship between the growth of industry and agriculture. Except the
weather-induced fluctuations, agricultural development has not been
characterized by any policy-induced jerks, as it has consistently shown a
growth rate of around three per cent per annum over the whole plan period.
Although there has been some slow down of industrial growth rate after
the mid-sixties, no serious imbalances within different sectors in industry or
in relation to agriculture have been witnessed. The terms of trade between
agriculture and industry have also remained steady over the plan period. In
the recent period, however, there has been some welcome shift in terms of
softening of relative prices in the case of crops experiencing technological
change and rise in productivity.
The second major achievement of planning in India is in respect of self-
reliance. Self-sufficiency in food, industrial infrastructure and producer goods
in the key sectors and a sharp reduction in the proportion of foreign resources
to total resources for plan investments can be cited as significant examples.
Reduction in poverty and in inequalities in consumption constitutes another
major achievement. This has been made possible by steady agricultural
growth leading to self-sufficiency in foodgrains, and the launching of several
employment-oriented programmes and measures to remove exploitation of
the socially disadvantaged sections.
Our major shortfalls relate to the area of productivity, especially where
public investments are involved, whether the operation of public enterprises
or public programmes for social development and for removal of poverty.
The functioning of public institutions in general, from enterprises to credit
and marketing institutions and administration for rural development require
considerable improvement. The problem is partly technological including the
upgradation of skills, particularly at the grass-roots level. Modernisation of
plants, of irrigation systems and improving communication system in general
can contribute a great deal to raising productivity. But basically, the problem
concerns institutional and organisational arrangements involving
bureaucracy, the decision-makers at the plant and farm level and working
people in general.

Functional Autonomy
The necessary administrative arrangements and political will to use the
available resources for the completion of on-going projects speedily instead
of spreading resources thinly so inherent in our political system, can help to
raise productivity of investments made in the whole economic system.
Improvement in the working of public enterprises holds the key to
improvement in overall productivity, not only because of the large
investments made in these enterprises but also because of their high
complementarity with the functioning of the private enterprises and economy
in general. The major issues relate to autonomy in the functioning of public
enterprises within the broad framework of their social accountability.
There are serious moves now to ensure such desirable autonomy for
public enterprises in respect of decisions regarding investment, product-mix,
pricing and labour relations. Significant steps have been taken recently to
professionalize the management and to provide security of tenure to
managers within the framework of accountability.

Managerial Efficiency and Efficient Pricing

The pricing of goods and utilities provided by public enterprises cannot be
separated from the question of improvement in efficiency. However, both
improvement in managerial efficiency and efficient pricing are essential for
generating resources from public enterprises which are crucial for meeting
the resource mobilization targets of the plan. Recently there have been moves
to raise administered prices in quite a few sectors where goods and services
have been underpriced for quite some time. Further, it is less inflationary as
well as more equitable to raise resources through such efficient pricing rather
than through deficit financing.
Besides, the allocative and distributive role of prices assumes much
greater importance now than two or three decades ago when many of these
public enterprises were launched. First, due to the general development of the
economy including improvements in communications, the supplies are far
more responsive to prices now than before indicating that price signals have
become effective for allocative decisions. Secondly, except the very
vulnerable sections of population for whom public distribution system
operates, the paying capacity of the population, particularly of the affluent
sections, has increased. Thirdly, it is far more equitable that the users of
goods and services pay for them rather than the non-users and community as
a whole either through indirect taxation or deficit financing.
The second major area requiring improvement in administrative
organization and institutions relates to agricultural and rural development.
There is now a major effort underway to improve rural credit and marketing
institutions, especially in regions where such infrastructure is much below the
national average. In the recent period there has been a significant increase in
the allocations for poverty alleviation programmes comprising public works
for employment generation as well as projects for household enterprises
through the endowment of assets. Provision of necessary technical skills and
marketing services, improvement in public delivery systems and ensuring the
active participation of the people in the formulation as well as
implementation of programmes are some of the pre-requisites for the success
of these programmes.

Decentralising the Planning

Steps are being taken to decentralise the planning process at the district
and the block level by involving the elected representatives of the people,
especially for formulating viable programmes for poverty alleviation and for
their better implementation. There is a strong tradition in the country of non-
political voluntary work for welfare and development. The involvement of
such organisations is being increasingly fostered to bring in local knowledge
and ensure public vigilance in the implementation of development
programmes. Efforts are also being stepped up to encourage the organisation
of beneficiaries themselves and raise their awareness through mass media for
improving their group effort and bargaining power with a view to ensuring
that the benefits of poverty alleviation programmes really reach those for
whom they are intended.
 Green Revolution and After

M.V.Rao

One of the most significant and laudable achievements of post-

independent India is in the field of agriculture where a revolution was
brought in. When India announced in 1984 that it will provide to the drought
hit countries of Sub-Saharan Africa 100,000 tonnes of wheat as its
contribution to the alleviation of human suffering, the gesture evoked both
universal praise and admiration. This is one of the largest gifts of grain given
by any nation to the famine threatened Sub-Saharan countries. This
pronouncement was particularly significant since not long ago India itself
was struggling with food shortages and poverty and was depicted as a
country which can survive only with a begging bowl. How such a
transformation could be brought in the last 40 years of post independent India
is a fascinating story. All this transformation was possible because of the
forward looking policies of the Government, its enterprising and hard
working farmers, committed scientists, extension and developmental
workers, input agencies and by the country’s sheer determination to
transform itself from food deficit and importing country, to a self sufficient
nation. It had determined to belie the prophets of doom who painted a
gloomy future on the food front. It not only prevented famines and starvation
which used to be the cruel scenario in the preindependent and earlier years
but also could bring in resilience through building up of massive buffer
stocks to tide over difficult situations caused by drought, flood and other
calamities. India could be considered legitimately and rightly as a shining
example of how a nation prophesied to be doomed in the food front, could lift
itself to self sufficiency through its own determined and well planned efforts.
 India nearly tripled its foodgrain production in the last 40 years from 52 to
150 million tonnes. Its rice production during these four decades went up
from 21 to 64 million tonnes, wheat production from six to 47, sorghum from
six to 12, pearlmillet from 2.3 to 7.7, maize from two to eight and pulses
from 3.4 to 13 million tonnes. Sugarcane production went up from 60 to 190
million tonnes. Potato production went up nearly seven times while cotton
and jute production went up three and two times respectively. Even in the
case of oilseeds which are grown predominately under rainfed conditions, the
production went up nearly one and half times. In spite of doubling of
population, the per capita availability of major commodities with the
exception of pulses did not come down, in fact there is an increase in their
availability. Thus, per capita rice availability which was only 159 gm. per day
in 1951 when the population was 36.1 crores went up to 219 gm. in 1986
when the population rose to an estimated figure of 76.6 crores. During the
same period the per capita availability of wheat went up from mere 65.7 to
147.1 gm. The total per capita foodgrain availability in the last four decades
went up from 395 gm. to 478 gm. in spite of more than doubling of the
population. Not only this is a signal achievement by itself, India developed a
strong food security and public distribution system and also built up an
inconvenient huge buffer stocks of 28.2 million tonnes of food grains by
1986. It could also export annually 3 to 4.5 lakh tonnes of foodgrains in the
1980s to needy and friendly countries. The country also wisely invested in
chemical fertilizers the consumption of which was merely 65.6 thousand
tonnes in 1951 went up to 87.4 lakh tonnes in 1986, and also in increasing its
net irrigated area from 21 to 42 million hectares.
While these achievements are significant India has to go a long way to
provide its people with the amounts of food, fats, sugar and other
commodities comparable to what is consumed in the more developed
countries.

Agricultural Scenario
Agriculture is basic to India. More than 72 per cent of its population now
depends on agriculture. Out of the net estimated national product of Rs.
1,95,707 crores in 1986, agriculture accounted for Rs. 60,721 crores. The
percentage share of agriculture to the net national product at current prices is
30.8%. Agricultural products like coffee, tea, spices, leather, horticultural
items, meat, etc., are important export items earning valuable foreign
exchange to the country. Out of the total geographical area of 32.87 crore
hectares of the country 14.27 crore hectares is the net cultivable area put
under different crops. About 3.8 crore hectares are sown more than once thus
bringing the total gross cropped area to 18.4 crore hectares. The cropping
intensity at present is 126.4%. The Nation gave high priority to bring as much
area as possible under irrigation as a result of which a net area of about 4.2
crore hectares has been brought under assured water supply. In spite of
bringing so much area under irrigation, still 70% of the cultivated area is
rainfed depending upon natural precipitation. This rainfed area contributes to
nearly 42% of the total food grain production of the country. This area is
important since 83% of oilseeds, 92% of coarse cereals (sorghum, millets,
maize and barley), 83% of the pulses, 70% of the cotton, 58% of the rice,
28% of the wheat, 20% of the sugarcane are raised on it. The role of timely,
good and well distributed rainfall is critical in Indian agriculture and any
disturbance in monsoon creates violent fluctuations in production.
The varied soil and climatic conditions of the country support a wide
range of crops, both field, horticultural and commercial and, also animals.
Rice, wheat, sorghum, pearlmillet, maize, cotton, sugarcane, jute and a wide
range of pulse and oilseed crops, spices, plantation crops are grown in the
country. In fact India occupies the first, second and third positions for
acreage in the world for a number of crops.

Ingredients of Development
India was fortunate to have enlightened leadership at political, scientific
and administrative levels which gave the needed support at different stages of
development of its agriculture. The first Prime Minister of India, Pt.
Jawaharlal Nehru expressed that “everything else can wait but not
agriculture” The second Prime Minister, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri elevated
the status of the farmer by the slogan “Jai Jawan and Jai Kisan”. Mrs. Indira
Gandhi pronounced on 9 April 1966 “unless we increase agricultural
production and thus achieve self-sufficiency in the next few years, we will
have forfeited our right to call ourselves a free country, let alone a great
country.” She gave the needed impetus and boost to agriculture and initiated
a number of steps that ushered in the “Green Revolution”in the
country.During the stewardship of Shri Rajiv Gandhi, technology missions
like the one on oilseeds have been initiated and a number of policy decisions
were taken that brought stability in production.
What India achieved in agricultural front is a result of sustained well
planned efforts and strong foundations laid for research, development and
infrastructural creation ever since it became independent. With the loss of
fertile, irrigated land at the time of partition to the newly created Pakistan,
India initiated immediately in 1947-48, the“Grow More Food”campaign.
This was extended on compact area basis in 1950-51 to “Intensive cultivation
areas” An “Integrated Production Programme” was also taken up in 1950.
Simultaneously land reforms like the abolition of Zamindari system (1951),
development of major and minor irrigation systems, initiation of permanent
Planning Commission (1950) to plan development on 5 year plan basis,
delegation of responsibility of agricultural development to the States (1950),
initation of Community Development Programme (1952), starting of ETO
(Exploratory Tubewells Organisation) in 1954, undertaking of the Intensive
Agricultural District Programme (IADP) towards the end of the second five
year plan period, Intensive Agricultural Areas Programme (IAAP) in 1964,
strengthening of High Yielding Varieties Programme (HYVP) followed by
Multiple Cropping Programme (MCP), initiation of Irrigation Commission
(1969), ground water survey and investigation programme (1966-67), rural
electricity programmes, starting of seed agencies like the National Seed
Corporation (1963), development of fertilizer policies and factories,
development of agencies for agricultural machinery, plant protection
chemicals, rural credit and rural refinance, agricultural cooperative marketing
federations, setting up of Agricultural Prices Commission, intensive cattle
and dairy development projects; reorganisation of agricultural development,
research, education and extension systems, development of linkages with
several countries and international organisations etc., are some of the major
steps undertaken by Government of India to boost up agricultural production.
During the 40 years after Independence the agricultural departments at the
Centre and the States were reorganised and greatly strengthened. A number
of community development, extension, cooperation, educational, credit
support programmes were initiated to reach and help the farmers. Research
was greatly strengthened. Under the aegis of the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR), 45 Research Institutes and Bureaux, 19
National Research Centres, 8 Project Directorates and 69 All India
Coordinated Projects came into existence. Besides these, every major state of
the country started one or more Agricultural Universities which now total 26.
India today can boast of developing one of the biggest agricultural research
systems in the world and which also has the second largest scientific
manpower. Although production is complex which is dependent on a number
of institutional, technological, sociological, climatological, input, credit,
marketing and other parameters, the scientific results have shown that it is
possible to double or triple the present production levels of most of our crops
if all the factors that go into production are harmoniously and synchronously
put together and exploited.

Green Revolution
By methodical planning, infrastructural and institutional development,
India during the last 40 years, made significant progress in various sectors of
agriculture as could be seen in Table 1.

Table 1
Progress in production and productivity of
different agricultural commodities between 1950-1987
 * Lakh bales of 170 kg. each ** Lakh bales of 180 kg. each *** In hundred million nuts Source:
Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, GOI, 1987.

In the area of milk, wool, eggs and fish similar progress was achieved,
particularly in recent years. Thus between 1980-81 and 1986-87 milk
production went up from 31.6 to 44.0 million tonnes; egg production from 10
to 16 billion, wool production from 34.2 to 41.0 million kg. and fish
production from 2.4 to 2.8 million tonnes.
The index of progress could also be gauged by per capita availability of
different items of consumption (Table 2).

Table 2
Per Capita availability of foodgrains in India
(in grams per day)
Commodity 1951 1986
Rice 158.9 218.9
Wheat 65.7 147.1
Other Cereals 109.6 71.5
Cereals 334.2 437.5.
Pulses 60.7 40.6
Foodgrains 394.9 478.1
Population 36.1 crores 76.6 crores
Source: Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, GOI, 1987.

The Green Revolution triggered off a chain of developmental activities. A

number of agencies that deal with fertilizers, pesticides, seed, agricultural
machinery, warehousing, marketing, processing and post-harvest operations,
product development, cold storage, major and minor irrigation, export of
agricultural commoditie, etc, came into existence that generated wealth and
employment. Much more, the Green Revolution gave the necessary
confidence to the nation to fend for itself on the most important and sensitive
area, namely, the food front.
With better medical facilities and welfare activities of the nation the infant
mortality and death rates are coming down. The life expectancy of males and
females is expected to raise to 63.3 and 64.7 years respectively by 2000 A.D.
India’s population at the present rate of growth is projected to raise to 100
crores by the turn of the century. In the absence of rapid industrialisation to
divert people from the rural areas to urban areas, there will be tremendous
pressure on land and the cultivable land; man ratio which was 0.48 ha. in
1951 is expected to come down to 0.15 ha. in 2000 A.D.

The Future
The National Commission on Agriculture (1976) projected the demands
on the agricultural front for 2000 A.D. (Table 3).

Table 3
Demand and Supply Balances — 2000 A.D.
 End of this sample Kindle book.
Enjoyed the sample?
Buy Now
or
See details for this book in the Kindle Store

00000>