AGRICULTURE
The food and agriculture policy of the union government suffered a lot of changes and bitter criticisms. From the middle of 1953 upto 1955 the cost of foodstuff fell almost to . But in the middle of 1957 the cost rose to about . This was a severe blow on the fund of the public. But this was not the result of less production; instead of that it was just the reverse: In general, in 1956-57 agricultural productions in- creased at least by 7% in comparison to the production of 1955-56. In 1956-57 the production of foodstuff and commercial commodities has been increased by 6% and 18% respectively.
PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY
Productive industry had a mixed result last year. The index number of productive industry became 168-3 in June 1957, whereas it was 200.3 in June 1956. Of course in some respect this industry had a considerable progress. The production of coal, iron ore and other metals had been increa- sed but the production of sugar, cotton cloth, cement, safety matches had been decreased to a great extent. In spite of less production some indus- tries, e. g., cotton mills were in much difficulty for want of demand. The extra production duty on cloth caused less sale of the production.
COMMUNICATION
An inadequate system of communication obstructs all kinds of deve- lopment. The government could not improve much in this sphere last year. The government has proposed only for a committee for well organising the system. The name of the committee is 'Road and Inland Water Transport Advisory Committee'. Except this government has only changed the name of Transport Advisory Council, as "Transport Development Council. The quantity of goods transported by Indian Railways in 1957 was a bit larger than the previous years. If the index number of goods transportation by Indian Railways in 1947-48 was 100 then it became 181 in 56-57. This number was 161 in 1955-56. Under the Second plan the paved road in India will be 1,44,000 miles. Under the First plan this length was 1,22,000. Moreover it has been decided that under the Second plan the total expendi- ture for road construction will be almost 82 crores of rupees. i.e., about 16
