Articles by Ramesh Jaura

Search for Stable Exchange Rates Ramesh Jaura WHEREAS West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and French President Discard d'Estaing have reason to rejoice over the coming into operation of the European Monetary System (EMS) on January 1, as scheduled, Indian officials in Bonn and Brussels fear that the new system will have adverse effects on the value of Indian exports to the EEC. In fact, the EMS has been causing concern not only to India and other underdeveloped countries but also to the US.


BONN SUMMIT Illusions of Stability and Growth Ramesh Jaura UNLIKE the pervious summits in Rambouillet, Puerto Rico and London, the Summit conference of Seven leading industrial nations that met at Bonn on July 16-17 has resulted in a package of specific and interdependent measures covering growth, employment and inflation, energy, trade and relations with the developing countries. In a thirty-one point declaration, the summit countries (Canada, France, Italy, Japan, UK, US and West Germany) pledge them- selves to improved growth so that "the we world is able to develop to meet the expectations of its citizens and the aspirations of the developing countries". A steady non-inflationary growth is to be achieved by implementing concrete measures tailored to their different economic positions.


reports are that the experiment has been quite successful. Until this poll the sarpanches were elected indirectly, by the panches themselves. The latest poll amounted to an extension of the franchise principle and has been widely welcomed by voters. In effect, it is the sarpanch who exercises the real powers. The panches being, by and large, inactive and sleeping partners in the village administration.

hectares could be set apart for the production of scarce wood and bamboo. Rubber plantations continue to be an important part of the economy; in spite of the destructions. However the tapping of latex destined for export needs to be modernised. Certain mountainous regions, where the soil is basaltic, are favourable for the cultivation of tea, coffee and cocoa. The lulls where the soil is less rich will be reserved for breeding of cattle and poultry; and setting up of a factory for turning out synthetic food for cattle is envisaged. Time was when the best workshops producing pottery and porcelain were in the mountainous regions. Today not even one half of the output is being produced, and the present plan foresees the revival of this industry. The plains are to be cultivated; and besides rice, it has been decided to set aside 1,00,000 hectares for sugarcane, 50,000 hectares for soya beans and 20,000 hectares for orchards.

October 22, 1977 WEST GERMANY Creeping Authoritarianism Ramesh Jaura ARE the urban terrorists 'revolutiona- ries' himing at the liberation of the masses? Or, are they just Ordinary criminals' sheltering behind the thoughts of Marx, Mao and Marcuse? Are they 'rebels' frustrated by the snail's pace at which governments respond to the needs of the silent majority? Or, are they "Hitler's Children" willy-nilly paving the way for fascism? These questions have been debated in the Federal Republic of Germany ever since the Red Army Fraction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, started making its presence felt. In fact West Germany is now in the midst of a verbal civil war in which a minority of the doubt- ting Thomases are pitted against the majority of hardliners on the question of terrorism.