The total volume of goods and services produced by the people of a country in a given period of time, the major part is for domestic use while a small part is exported on in the case of services made available to foreigners. These exports are normally balanced by imports India is now having an adverse balance of trade and balance of payments instead of a favourable balance as in the pre-war period. This adverse balance of trade is caused mainly by large imports of capital goods, and other investment goods and imports of food stuffs. In respect of service items also there is a negative balance. This book presents a vivid and penetrating analysis of India's foreign trade problems in the field of international Economics.

The exchange of goods and services is the means through which independent economic units enter into relation with one another and become part of a local or national economic community. As exchange passes beyond a country's boundaries, it becomes parts of a broader regional, continental or world economy. Trade has undergone along revolution from primitive bar system to the modern combined with an intricate system of international credits, loans and investment. The economic prosperity of a country depends in a large measure on its foreign trade. Naturally, there is a keen tussle among the countries of the world to promote exports in order to earn valuable foreign exchange needed for their economic development. There is also an urge on the part of developing and primary producing countries to industrialized and self-sufficient in important and major items of their requirement, since they feel that they cannot depend entirely on agriculture to provide employment for their growing population and improve the lot of the people. As against this, there is a very strong tendency in the highly industrialized countries of the world to form groups on regional basis in order to create an area of trade within themselves free of all kinds of barriers. The book makes an attempt to bring such developments and other trends in international trade in a proper focus for promoting trade of south.

This volume goes to the heart of the continuing debate on the interaction between branches of social and natural sciences in an integrated framework. The elements of a new paradigm to consider economic processes in relation to physics and biology are starting to emerge more clearly, and in some cases, they have already been erected from solid foundations. Recently, new global problems generated by economic and population growth, environmental degradation, and rapidly changing technologies have placed renewed attention on the relation between economic and ecology. During last fifty years, a highly interdependent world system has consolidated and introduced qualitative changes in the human perception of our relation to the rest of nature. The energy situation inn the developing world is desperate. Because the developing countries are primarily dependent on fossil fuels, chiefly oil, for industrial growth, they have been hard hit by oil price increases. Further, in the rural area, where most of the population lives, there are limited supplies of increasingly expensive diesel fuel or kerosene. Noncommercial energy sources such as firewood, dung, and agricultural residues are generally used in rural areas, but under the pressure of growing populations the forests are disappearing. This is resulting in a critical shortage of firewood for cooking and heating, as well as in the destruction of the environment. In addition, when dung and agricultural residues are burned, valuable fertilizers are destroyed. Thus, the rural areas, the sources of food and fiber, face a particularly alarming situation.

India has basically been an agricultural country and it is likely to continue to be so far along time to come unless some miracle happens at some stage. In spite of this country has been unable to be assured of needed supplies of foodgrains and other agricultural products. The in-depth analysis carried out recently about the progress and prospects of Indian economy has shown what potentials exist. It is necessary to make everyone in the nation aware of these potentials as also the tasks to be performed to realize these potentials for the good of the country in particular and the world in general. The economic crisis through which the nation is passing involves an examination of many complex and delicate problems. The present volume differs from others in its approach and the perspective it offers. It gives a new kind of analysis usually neglected in the literature dealing with Indian economic problems. There are many problems such as the question of unemployment rising market prices, food scarcity and the need for a better standard of living which significantly influence the common man. Under democracy, he is intimately involved in policy decisions relating to these subjects. Such decisions, however, are not single to arrive at they require comprehensive study, serious deliberation, and well coordinated programmes for talking them. Decisions relating to planning strategy, market mechanism, private initiative, industrial licensing, and international economic transactions has profound impact on production and distribution of national wealth. The economic decisions relating to these subjects are also very much affected by political considerations. But, it assumes that the individuals who decide these matters should be aware of all the implications.