From 50 Years Ago: Aid-India.

…the United States not only expressed its willingness to give India the substantial amount of $1 billion, for the first two years of the Third Plan … it also proposed that the other members of the [Aid to India] Club should make an equal contribution. ... The American attitude is imaginative not only with regard to the size of aid but also with regard to its terms. The Administration has been putting pressure on the other mem-bers to grant aid initially for the first two years of the Third Plan at interest rates which are moderate and with a reasonably long re-payment period. …The American administration, thus, is pursuing a policy of material help to the un-der-developed economies and is trying to do it in a manner that could bring out the superi-ority of liberal democratic beliefs. In this task, it is persuading the other countries to participate more actively… not merely with respect to India; [but] also… in respect to the other under-developed countries. …Now that something like a commitment on principle on the part of the aid-giving countries has emerged, there is also the danger that the country might relax its ef-forts at firmly pursuing the right policies. Aid, however essential, is no substitute for self-help, and while India has every reason to be thankful to the countries which are will-ing to help, she has to be doubly vigilant that efforts are not relaxed to utilise the aid to the best advantage. There is as much dan-ger in not getting aid as in getting too much aid too easily.