Help India end dependence on foreign aid

AHMEDABAD, April 13. Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, today called for all out efforts to end India’s dependence on foreign help and quicken the pace of nation’s development through self-reliance.

Foreign help, she warned, sometimes appeared to make the task of development easy, but its effect was very often to make a country dependent on outside help for long. No doubt, Mrs. Gandhi conceded, India had to depend on foreign know-how and collaboration to some extent, but it was bad to continue to do so. She therefore exhorted technologists, scientists, industrialists and those responsible for efficient management to lead the country towards the goal of self-reliance as early as possible by encouraging Indian talent and use of indigenous materials in the development efforts.

The Prime Minister was addressing the third annual convocation of the Indian Institute of Management here at which 83 students received postgraduate diplomas in business administration. Mrs. Gandhi said while the modern age with its jet travels and international meetings brought people closer together and promoted the idea of one world, the aim of national development and self-reliance should nto be lost sight of. Mrs. Gandhi had a word of praise for the institute for taking up the work of training in management of agricultural operatives. She expressed the hope the institute would also pay attention to betterment of landless agricultural labour.