India's Five-Year Plan,
The publication of the- Indian five-year plan having preceded, by more than three days the issue of the communiqué recording the results of the Commonwealth Economic Conference, there can be no question of the plan being based on anything but India's internal needs. Those needs consist in the first instance of an increased food-supply and the raising of the standard of living generally. The pro- portion of the total sum of £1,550,000,000 to be devoted to these purposes is no less than 17.4 per cent. In addition, and as a necessary corollary, 27 per cent. is to be devoted to irrigation and power projects, which are obvious essentials for the effective development of agriculture. One important result of an increase in the production of food grains will be a diminution of imports from dollar countries. It is to be noted that one target aimed at is a substantial increase on the pro- duction of jute. Pakistan is, of course, a large producer of jute, and India's natural source of supply, but the general tension existing between the two countries has for long dammed the natural flow of jute from Pakistan in exchange for a natural flow of coal from India. Negotiations now in progress for a fresh trade treaty will, it may be hoped, remove impediments to an exchange obviously advantageous to both countries. India is at present an importer of steel. She has good supplies of excellent ore, and the proposed increase of steel production by nearly 40 per cent. should be well within the possibilities. But India's problem is the same as so many other countries have to face. No less than 25 per cent. of her revenue is spent on defence and, with Communist China now master of Tibet, and therefore on India's fronfrer, the total under that head can clearly not be diminished.
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