24 MARCH 1944, Page 13

INDUSTRY IN INDIA

should like to refe: to Archdeacon's Synge's letter in your issue March 17th under the heading " Industry in India." It was most structive to hear from such a source of the lack of a planned develop- ent, from which India has suffered so long. Your readers will be terested to learn that a group of Indian industrialists and economists ve recently drawn up a memorandum showing how, in their opinion, rdia's standard of living could be raised very considerably in fifteen ears. The plan covers four main subjects—agriculture, industry, educa-

tion and housing—and also deals with the question of medical services. If such a plan could be realised, the situation described by Archdeacon Synge should rapidly be ended. No more towns would be permitted to grow haphazard, with neither water supply nor drainage system. The iron mines and other industrial assets in India would no longer remain largely unexploited, but would add their output to the world's resources.

The authors of the plan have anticipated the point made by Arch- deacon Synge in his last paragraph, and have laid it down that a central Government, enjoying popular support, is an essential condition for national planning. It is hoped that this plan will prove a rallying point not only for Indian opinion, but also for that section of opinion in this country which is far-sighted enough to appreciate that a poverty-stricken India must necessarily depress the standard of living in the West. For this reason it is hoped that the plan will shortly be published in this