Best Year Ever

As Red China's regimented economy faltered, India reported its best economic year in history. Industrial production rose 15% over the 1959 industrial index of 151.9. The harvest is the biggest in Indian history.

Significantly, most of the industrial rise came from the private sector of business, which many of Nehru's socialist-minded planners tend to slight in favor of "public sector" state enterprises. New products manufactured domestically for the first time ranged from chemicals to portable typewriters. Biggest rise in production was recorded by the automobile industry, which turned out 52,115 vehicles in 1960 as compared with 36,923 in 1959. More than a million bicycles were manufactured, and a modest export trade of 10,000 bicycles begun with the Middle East. Steel production rose from 1,800,000 tons in 1959 to 2,200,000 tons last year, enabling India to export about 150,000 tons of pig iron and steel. And there is no indication that India's modest boom will let up. For 30 miles along the road linking Delhi with the Taj Mahal in Agra, for example, the empty roadside space has been snapped up as building sites for new factories and industrial plants.

India's progress is watched closely by other underdeveloped Asian countries to see if democratic methods can match or outdo the harsh methods of Red China's Communists. In 1960, the honors went to India.

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