WINDS OF CHANGE

We also recognise that it is not enough to talk in terms of merely principles and doctrines. It is very necessary to go into the details of the problems. If you see the series of points that the Prime Minister's note makes mention of, it is not merely trying to state a doctrine. It is an enumeration of certain basic problems and their facets that administration and the country faces in different phases. For example, take the administration of corporate organisation — the unproductive expenditure and the conspicuous consumption that goes with its growth. It is a recognition of certain realities of the administration and the policies of the corporate organisation. My main argument is that this note recognises certain detailed aspects of the problems and it calls upon the State Governments and the Central Govern­ment to view the entire field of economic administration to see whether we are giving a fair trial to the powers that are placed or vested in us to regulate the corporate organisations. It also makes a fervent plea for giving more incentive for production and emphasises the principle of just distribution too. Another very important step that we are contemplating here relates to the enlargement of the Public Sector in the field of consumer industries. We find that at the present moment the most profit-making industry is the consumer industry. In basic industries, there is a very prolonged period of gestation as we call it — a period coming to a mature stage when that project can start production and give you profit, etc. But consumer industry is one sector where I think there is an unconscionable rate of profit. We find that by the very nature of things, these industries have gone to the private sector. Now we have reached a stage where we have to realise that it is not enough merely to have a faster rate of industrialisation. We have also to see that the faster rate of industrialisation opens up prospects to larger sections of the smaller people for self-employment, for their own participation in the process of industrialisation. That is, the main problem before the country.. I am aware that ours is a very limited objective. We all know that we cannot try to bring in the field of operation, all the consumer industries, but wherever possible, we have to leave the field of consumer industry either to the cooperatives or to the small-scale sector. This is a recognition of an important objective that we will have to follow as a conscious policy.