Transcript of special meeting of Executive Directors, held on Thursday, October 1, 1964 : India - Report to the President of the IBRD and IDA on India's economic development effort

LLB STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL 89492 1 INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR 2 RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 3 Special Meeting of Executive Directors 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 FR 14 15 Board Room .International Bank Building 16 Washington, D. C. Thursday, October 1, 1964 17 The meeting was convened at 10:04 o'clock a. m., 18 Mr. George D. Woods presiding. 19 20 21 l 22 I' l 23 24 25 ACE-FEDERAL REPORTERS, INC. 415 SECOND STREET. N.E. WASHINGTON. 0. C.  STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL c rrT:CI'i'T3 4 6 - 1. ..1.nc..J.a n onomic ~3tudies 7 8 9 10 ll 12 13 14 SR 15 16 19 20 21 1 22 1 23 I I 24 II 25 11 flI ACE-FEDERAL REPORTERS, INC. 415 SECOND STREE.T, ~J.E. WASH!~GTON, 0. C. II  40 16 17 19 19 20 We come next to another item I would like to report 21 on relating to the Indian economic studies. 22 We have recently initiated some economic studies, 23 a series of economic studies in India under the direction 24 of Mr. Bernard Bell. 25 Mr. Bell is an economist of high standing. He is  41 c: a professional economist associated with a firm domiciled Washington. He and his firm have performed services Bank in the past. I might say in passing that I am hopeful that things will work out so that Mr. Bell joins the Bank as a regular member of our staff. This is subject to various 1 checks, and so forth. But it is entrain. 8 b~. Bell most recently was part, if not the head, 9 of a mission that made a study of the transportation system, 10 the Coal Transport system in India, with which some of you 11 are familiar. 12 The studies Mr. Bell is now undertaking will 13 consist of (a) a set of specific inquiries directed toward 14 particular sectors and areas of the development effort, 15 selected because they are judged to be of critical importance 16 to the Indian economy; and (b) the use of the information 17 and understanding gained from these inquiries, together 18 with knowledge already available from other studies such 19 as the Energy Survey and the Coal Transport Study, to 20 provide a comprehensive assessment of the existing effort to 21 accelerate the growth of the Indian economy. The study 22 is not intended as an appraisal of the Indian Government's 23 plans for the future as they will be embodied in the fourth 24 Five Year Plan. Such an appraisal would be premature. 25 Rather the study is intended to provide the understanding of, INC.  42 information about, the development effort to date which be necessary for an intelligent evaluation of the Fourth when the latter has been formulated. The report of the study will be made to me. I consider that we have been fortunate in getting Mr. Bell to undertake this task. As I stated, he has a distinguished record as an economist, and during the past twelve months he has been working on the Indian Coal Transport study, which we financed. Mr. Benjamin King, our resident representative in New Delhi, will be Mr. Bell's deputy in this study task force, and will also devote most of his time to the study, as will Mr. King's assistant in New Delhi, Mr. Pantanali. There will be nine other members of the Bank's staff working with Mr. Bell. In addition, with the cooperation of FAO, we have 17 managed to assemble a strong group of agricultural advisors, 18 which will be headed by Sir John Crawford, Director of the 19 Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National 20 University. Those who know about these matters, know the 21 talent that is available in the world, are particularly 22 happy at the success in arranging for Sir John to take this 23 task on for us in India. 24 To help on the transport side, the Brookings 25 Institute here in Washington has agreed to release one of . IMC. 'N.E.  43 ~,their leading economists, Mr. Wilfred Owen, to work with the team on a part time basis. Mr. Bell is now in India and the team is assembling there. They will be working throughout the winter, and I bavea;ked Mr. Bell to schedule his operations, his assignments and his studies in order to enable a report to me hopefully by· the end of March. He thinks that this may be feasible. Are there any questions about this general study in India that I have just spoken of? I have no further business, gentlemen, as the Bank Board. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 I 22 t r I 23 ,, ~· '' 24 f L.~~ JN.E.