Advocate-General-Clearing the Way for Patronage

September 7, 1974 assistance programmes were well conceived or not would depend on the shadow rate of foreign exchange. That claim, however, would be difficult to make where the proportion of cash assistance to net foreign ex- change earned is as high as very nearly 3,000 per cent. It may indeed be interesting to know whether the aggregate net foreign exchange earned in any recent year was even 50 per cent of the aggregate cash assistance. Even were one to take the so-called free market exchange rate quotations, for example those prevalent in Hong Kong or Geneva or Zurich, it would be difficult to prove that the value of the Indian rupee in terms of any of the hard currencies was, during the relevant period, less than half the formal rate of exchange.