One form of institutional change which we have found to be useful in overcoming concentration of economic power in a few industrial houses is the attempt to evolve a "joint sector" with a larger participation of the Government through public investment and share in management in those enterprises where economies of scale necessitate a large size and where private managerial ability need not to be altogether excluded. A second policy which we adopt is to ensure adequate dispersal of industries to provide employment opportunities also over a wider area so that the ill-effects of clustering conglomerations may be avoided. The pollution of human environment is a serious problem which has lately called for conscious remedial measures, both governmental and otherwise, in developed countries. Every country in its process of development need not necessarily pass through a repetition of the ill-effects experienced elsewhere; and with this end in view we have also set up a committee to keep under review the protection of our environment.
Our industrial structure is considerably diversified as I have mentioned already. But the rate of industrial growth needs to be stepped up with a conscious, but outward-looking approach, towards self-reliance. Here again we have taken certain conscious measures to produce more at home to pay for what we need to buy abroad and also to enlarge upon the range of production within. We expect to achieve significant results in this sector of exports and imports as well, though our efforts have to be sustained for quite some time.
I have spoken at some length on the new emphasis that we are seeking to give at present to economic development in the country. But if I have said that mere growth in GNP is not enough and that we have to give priority to the needs of the poorest people, this does not mean that growth is not necessary. Indeed, without growth, we cannot eliminate mass poverty. But the processes of growth and distribution are so inextricably linked up that we have to choose those paths of growth which make for a greater degree of equality of incomes, wealth and consumption as well. These paths are not easy to find, much less to stick to. Nor are the age-old problems of raising enough savings in a poor country or of avoiding wasteful or prestigious investment or of efficient management and the like less relevant in India now than they were over the past twenty years. In fact, some of them like raising the rate of saving may require greater ingenuity in a more egalitarian climate.
