Relative Rates of Growth—Agriculture and Manufacturing by Ashok Rudra. Bombay: University of Bombay, 1967. Price Rs. 8.00. p. 89.

The question of balance between the growth rates of agriculture and industry has been an important one in formulating development plans for the underdeveloped countries. In both India and Pakistan, agriculure has proved to be the lagging sector leading to a rise in the relative prices of agricultural products. That such an imbalance in the relative rates of growth cannot be continued much longer without arresting the growth rate of the industrial sector itself is almost universally recognised these days. In the theory of planning one frequently comes across the concept of balanced growth between agriculture and industry. Various authors have emphasised different aspects of the interrelationship between agriculture and in¬dustry in defining the criteria of balanced growth. A very important theory has been propounded by W. Arthur Lewis in which the lagging agricultural produc¬tion results in the shortage of foodgrains while the income generated by manu¬facturing keeps raising the demand for food. The result is a rise in wages and the decline in capitalists’ share of national product. Although such theories are very illuminating they are by no means adequate guides for the practical planner. In formulating balanced plans for sectoral expansion one has to have some quanti¬tative idea about the required relative rates of balanced growth of the major sec¬tors of the economy. The present book by Dr. Ashok Rudra is an attempt at such quantification.