Articles by Contributed

THERE are no votaries of the free market left among Indian economists. They have all turned into evangelists in the cause of project evaluation. That way they can pay lip service to planning and pretend that their predilection for the market mechanism is really in the interests of more rational planning.

The proposed collaboration with Wilkinson Sword is also fraught with undesirable possibilities Ostensibly the collaboration is being sought in the interest of expanding exports, but if the company is allowed use of the collaborator's well known brand names within the country Malhotra's monopoly position would be immeasurably strengthened. Worse, it is bound to provoke demands by other blade manufacturers, who may similarly agree to export commitments for the purpose, that they be permitted collaboration with makers of other internationally known brands such as Gillette and 7 O'clock, Thus the floodgates may be opened to totally unjustifiable and wasteful proliferation of collaboration arrangements and foreign brand names in blades as was allowed to happen in such diverse industries as cosmetics, refrigerators and radios.