New Urgency about Aid

August 8, 1970 when it comes to the protection of their vital interests and also because the concept of the circulation of elites in governmental positions is deeply in- grained and institutionalised among the groups. Occasional family quarrels among the elite groups do break out but they invariably come together to prevent any structural change or even a sizeable non-structural change (eg, an appreciable worsening of their share of income and wealth brought about by, say, legislation). Thus now we have a number of operational and methodologi- cally sound concepts which should help us in the study of Indian planning. It should now be clear that with a political set-up like the one we have in India today, a structural change in the Indian economy is ruled out because the elite groups would not allow it. Thus a structural change in the Indian economy implies a total institutional change, or in other words the present elite groups must be displaced if something meaningful has to be done to the Indian economy. The discussion can now be carried on at a different level how by a conscious planning effort, we WHAT is aid? Is aid good? How much aid? Aid or trade? How to measure aid? These questions have become in- creasingly important in discussions of economic development since the Second World War when aid in one form or another has become an essential part of the process of economic development. They have also assumed a new urgency ever since it was observed that (in the words of Prebisch) "if the inflow of loans were to continue at 1905 levels and the terms and conditions of that year were to be maintained, the service burden would grow so heavy that net loans would turn negative in 1970". The UNCTAD has been much can displace the elite groups and bring about a structural change in the Indian economy. It is not proposed to do this at this stage because that would be an extremely difficult topic. What one must make clear now is that conventional technological economics is totally helpless and ineffective when dealing with the transition of the economy from one stage to another (a more developed one) because such a transition would encompass the rest of society and must be analysed in terms of the variables of the general theory of social action. In the meantime any planning analysis of the partial type, in other words, the type neglecting institutional factors,10 must be treated with the suspicion it deserves. The technologist economist must be told once and for all, that he cannot go on optimising the economy in a social vacuum.