Page 68 - March EW PDF 24

Special Report

er goods necessary for the growth and
development of industrial conglomer-
ates led by pioneer Indian entrepre-
neur-industrialists G.D. Birla, J.N.
Tata, Ambalal Sarabhai, Walchand
Hirachand, Lala Shri Ram among
others, who had funded the freedom
movement. This village-led develop-
ment model was ridiculed by the post-
independence Congress party leader-
ship and constitutionalists including
prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
On the contrary, Jawaharlal Ne-
hru, free India’s first prime minister
imposed the Soviet Union’s centrally
planned heavy industry development
model with which he became enam- Gandhi: rural growth focus Nehru: heavy industry model
oured in the fashionable salons of
Bloomsbury Square, London — his proved to be a disaster and failed to minister in 1965, nationalised the coal
education in Harrow School, London generate the surpluses (‘profit’ was industry, the country’s major banks
and degree in natural sciences from — and remains — a bad word in the and for a while the foodgrains distri-
Cambridge University was totally di- official lexicon) for investment in bution trade.
vorced from economics — upon post- rural growth and development. The Fortuitously, with the introduction
independence India. outcome was disastrous. In the early of dwarf variety Mexican wheat by
T HIS TRANSLATED INTO soons failed, there was a sharp fall in Borlaug and popularised by Dr. M.S.
1960s when two successive mon-
American agri-scientist Dr. Norman
foodgrains production and India be-
the promotion of capital-
Swaminathan, India’s Green Revolu-
intensive public sector
enterprises (PSEs) for the came heavily dependent upon grain tion miraculously transformed Indian
imports from the United States which
agriculture, and annual foodgrains
production of coal, steel, electricity, gave them away at humiliating throw- production centred in perennially ir-
chemicals and fertilizers and build- away prices under its PL-480 pro- rigated Punjab, Haryana and Western
ing large dams for irrigation projects. gramme. In popular parlance, newly- Uttar Pradesh, spurted from 79 mil-
The model also mandated imposition independent India transformed into a lion tonnes in the 1960s to over 100
of rigid growth and development con- ‘ship-to-mouth’ economy. million tonnes in 1971. Despite this,
straints upon private industry, and Despite the public sector-led heavy the PSEs-dominated economy grew
on the country’s pioneer industrial- industry model failing to deliver the at a rock-bottom 3.5 percent per year
ists who were poised to establish their surpluses predicted by the coun- which was offset by annual popula-
footprints countrywide and across try’s first two roseate Soviet-style tion growth of 2.1 percent — the con-
Asia. five-year plans, the Congress party sequence of inadequate investment in
This economy development model under Nehru’s influence refused to public education.
driven by the Planning Commission change tack. In the early 1960s three Since then, India’s annual
and elaborate five-year plans neces- eminent economists — Prof. P.R. foodgrains production has crossed
sitated vacuuming meagre rural sav- Brahmananda, C.N. Vakil and B.R. 300 million tonnes. Undoubtedly,
ings for investment into government Shenoy — proposed a shift from the farmers in these states and regions
owned PSEs which were forecast to heavy industry to a light wage goods have prospered, but modestly be-
generate vast profits for investment production model through promotion cause of higher fuel prices after OPEC
into rural infrastructure development of thousands of labour-intensive light raised crude oil prices exponentially
and social welfare (public health and consumer and intermediate prod- in 1973 and 1979, and continuously
education). ucts enterprises which would gener- adverse terms of trade between town
Unsurprisingly, the country’s 256 ate mass employment and consumer and country. Incomes and standards
Central PSEs — and an equal num- goods demand required for economic of living of farmers in other 26 states
ber promoted by state governments growth. However this proposal was of the country suffer in comparison
— driven by business-illiterate bu- rejected and Nehru’s daughter Indira with Punjab farmers because the latter
reaucrats and over-promoted clerks, Gandhi who succeeded him as prime have been provided minimum support

68 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2024