From 50 Years Ago: Import Policy.

It must be pretty obvious that whatever licensing policy may be pursued, the situation cannot be brought under control until licences issued earlier have been worked off. No estimate of the outstanding liability on this score has been offered yet; the amount must still be pretty considerable. Import cuts effected during the first half of the year or those to come in the second half, may take care of the situation six months hence. The more acute problem is that of these six months.

Between food and foreign exchange we have got into a mess. The National Development Council was exercised over the former. The latter is largely in the lap of the Gods. Will Washington smile on us? Will the City of London remember that capital goods could not be exported in the past unless some capital was exported along with it? India does not have even the ‘trustee status’ without which no loans floated by her can be taken up by investment trusts and the institutional investors in the City. Considering the magnitude of our requirements, and the very limited scope of saving of foreign exchange that can be effected by any importing policy, however rigid, import policy for the next half year, which is on the anvil right now, would not mean much.