Viewing page 58 of 100

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

FREEDOMWAYS                  THIRD QUARTER 1973
goal of self-reliance
India is now in the midst of her fourth Five year Plan, a plan scheduled to commence in 1966 but postponed until 1969 due to war on the Indian border and due to drought. This means that India wants to keep the amount of imports from foreign countries under strict control and make full use of indigenous goods wherever available. Priority is given to agriculture because the whole development including industrial development is to a large extent dependent on what happens in the agricultural sphere. Indira is depending upon the scientists of India to strengthen the plan. She believes that efficiency is the primary objective of scientific management and that the scientist is an agent of change. Thus a challenge has been given to the scientists to use their skill and expertise to develop improved seeds, better from implements, to prevent plant disease and improve dry farming techniques. Under colonial rule western technology was appropriated by the Indian middle class and it remained unrelated to the Indian artisan class. The middle class which first took to engineering education retained an outlook of now dirtying their hands. It is only now, when people from the under-privileged classes have access to education in large numbers, that India has an opportunity and confidence in the Indian scientist. Not only must science and technology make and provide the goods and tools which India needs but science must fight superstition. As Mrs. Gandhi has expressed it: "Without the help of science I see little hope of checking the virus of religious, race and caste hatred. ...It is not enough for science to be cultivated in our laboratories, classrooms and offices, it must permeate our homes, the market place and the village square."
Throughout the Fourth Plan emphasis is laid on the common man, on the weaker and less privileged sections to bring about a greater equality in income and wealth. There is an increase in the public expenditure on education, health and social services which is one of the most effective ways to improve the productivity and earning capacity of the less privileged sections. At a time in history when most western countries, especially the United States, are cutting back in resource allocations to social service, education and health, India under the leadership of Indira Gandhi is taking the lead in such allocations. This type of moral leadership is indicative of Indira
232