THE ECONOMIC W E E K L Y A N N U A L January, 1960

factory w o r k e r is not very different here, m a k i n g personality coexist stead of detracting f r o m i t . Even
f r o m his a g r i c u l t u r i s t counterpart. w i t h social institutions. those concerned w i t h i n d u s t r i a l p o l i -
In the reviewer's o p i n i o n , a list of On the whole, Machine Age Maya cy w i l l find it extremely useful.
personality traits is not essential to is an i l l u m i n a t i n g study. It is un- The practical suggestion at the end
the. purpose and scheme of the doubtedly an o r i g i n a l contribution of the book is very valuable, and is
study. At least, the book w i t h o u t to knowledge, shedding new light further p r o o f that social anthropo-
the chapter in question w o u l d not on the problem of i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n logists deal w i t h observable reality,
of simple societies. T h e conspicu- and do not live outside the work-
have missed a n y t h i n g of value,
ous absence of p i c t o r i a l illustra- aday world.
Perhaps Nash consistently follows M S University of Baroda.
tions, and the sparse use of tables
the "elasticity-coexistence" model and charts add to its attraction i n - December 1950.

Domestic Fuels in I n d i a
L K
Statistics of India's pattern of energy consumption are sadly lacking and it is only in the fast feu
rears that attempts have been made to analyse the situation.
It has been generally known that the major proportion of the country's domestic heat is generated
from secondary fuels such as firewood [as used in the text of this review it includes agricultural wastes such as
bagasse straw, twigs etc), charcoal and cattle dung but the total quantities of such secondary fuels consumed
in both urban and rural areas has remained largely speculative, ranging from 40 to 131 million tons coal
equivalent (MTCE).
If secondary fuels can be displaced by primary fuels (such as coal, electricity and oil), dung can be
used as a manure, thus increasing agricultural production, and deforestation prevented.
It was in this context that the Ministry of Heavy Industries commissioned the National Council of
Applied Economic Research to assess the current demand for domestic fuels, future needs by 1965-66 and,
since India has large reserves of low grade coal, the possibilities of substitution of secondary fuels by the deve-
lopment of a rationally planned coat-based processing industry.

THE title of the report of the to assess one of the i m p o r t a n t con- improvement on previous ones and
Council is Domestic Fuels in stituents. D u n g , have been based on the m a r g i n of error has been re-
I n d i a * — somewhat of a misnomer such intractable variables as aver- duced.
since apart f r o m a few incomplete age measurable quantities of wet
The economic consequences of
comments here and there, the re- dung o u t t u r n per a n n u m , amount
burning such large quantities of
port is devoted l o a n analysis of the actually collected, p r o p o r t i o n of this
secondary fuels are clear. Some-
p r o b l e m presented by the current burnt, livestock p o p u l a t i o n etc. Only
what dramatically the report points
and future demand for domestic the National Sample Survey has
out that b u r n i n g 35 M T C E of dung
fuels for p r o v i d i n g heat for c o o k i n g . published some details about the
in the r u r a l areas is equivalent to
In the rest of the discussion we talk consumer expenditure on 'fuel and
b u r n i n g 900,000 tons equivalent of
of the consumption of fuels in these lighting 4 but provides separate fig-
nitrogen (equivalent to 12 S i n d r i s )
terms only. ures only in respect of Kerosene,
and 150,000 tons of Phosphorous
Gas and E l e c t r i c i t y (on the basis of
The total q u a n t i t y of p r i m a r y Pentoxide - i n terms of food 9 m i l -
their figures, India's consumption of
fuels consumed has already been l i o n tons of foodgrains. every year.
Kerosene w o u l d w o r k out at 2.5 m
estimated by the C o u n c i l in their In respect of the disproportionate
tons. In fact it is about 1.5 m
study The U t i l i s a t i o n of Primary consumption of wood fuel outside
tons!
Energy in India — the constituent the forest areas, it warns that 'con-
units are 2 m i l l i o n tons of soft coke. DUNG CONSUMPTION
ditions are being created in w h i c h
150,000 tons of Kerosene and 140 the annual rate of loss of soil is
m i l l i o n KWII of electricity, in all The methodology adopted is a p p r o a c h i n g that associated with
2.5 M T C E . T h i s is assumed to be interesting. In estimating the total completely barren l a n d ' .
consumed almost entirely in the d u n g consumption to be 37 M T C E ,
urban sector. the report confesses that it is "at
best an intelligent guess' a n d that
SECONDARY FUELS the 'figure should be considered as
It is in a t t e m p t i n g to estimate i n d i c a t i n g the order of magnitude
the q u a n t i t y of secondary fuels con- . . . the actual figure p r o b a b l y lies
sumed that difficulties arise. By far between 35 and 15 M T C E . The
the greater part is consumed in the table alongside is f i n a l l y b u i l t up.
r u r a l areas and most of it is neither The report calculates that the
bought nor sold. Previous attempts total consumption, in the urban areas
is l i k e l y to grow f r o m 20 M T C E to
* Published by A s i a P u b l i s h i n g 3 1 M T C E b y 1970 and i n the r u r a l
House, Bombay- 1959. P r i c e Rs areas f r o m 7 7 M T C E t o 8 5 M T C E .
22.25. These estimates are certainly an
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H o w is it proposed to o b t a i n 50 coal, w h i c h is proposed to be the

PROBLEM OF RURAL ENERGY
acres per v i l l a g e f o r g r o w i n g fire- basis f o r a large carbonisation pro-
In order to evolve a p o l i c y de-
wood, what sort of organisation ac- gramme. T h e difficulty i n a r r i v i n g
signed to displace secondary fuels,
ceptable to the peasants is necessary at a more realistic estimate lies in
the report examines the current and
to look after this and prevent des- the admission that not enough is
future a v a i l a b i l i t y of p r i m a r y fuels
t r u c t i o n by goats, cattle, etc? Such k n o w n o f the k i n d o f processes
and comes to the conclusion that the
questions remain unanswered. These which can use the varieties of low
only p r i m a r y fuels w h i c h could pro-
are c r i t i c a l questions and the pro- grade coal available in the country.
vide the answer are those based on
posal of the M i n i s t r y of A g r i c u l t u r e T h i s also vitiates the attempt to
coal. Fortunately we possess 50,000
to intensify a g r i c u l t u r a l develop- assess the many aspects of a carbo-
m i l l i o n tons of coal of w h i c h 96 per
ment in selected districts provides nisation p r o g r a m m e such as econo-
rent is low grade, and can be pro-
an excellent o p p o r t u n i t y to experi- mics of coal gas versus soft coke,
cessed to provide soft coke or gas or
ment w i t h various types of schemes location of plants—whether near the
both.
designed to solve the r u r a l fuel prob- mines or adjacent to centres of con-
Centres of consumption in r u r a l lems. sumption and if the latter where,
areas are both '.small' a n d w i d e investment required etc.
spread and the location of coal de- COST OF SUBSTITUTION
FURTHER RESEARCH NECCESSARY
posits entails very heavy investment Urban areas are almost w h o l l y
in transport capacity which would monetised and on page 23 the re- Coal gas avoids the disadvantages
render the cost of fuel supplied pro- port states that their sample surveys of soft coke but costs of d i s t r i b u -
h i b i t i v e . Even the simplest d u n g of the pattern of consumption of tion are p r o h i b i t i v e except perhaps
gas plant costs Rs 3 5 0 ; Solar Cook- fuels in Calcutta, D e l h i and Bombay in areas of h i g h concentration of
ers are not yet practicable. T h e re- indicate that ' p r i c e a n d a v a i l a b i l i t y p o p u l a t i o n . T h e general solution
p o r t therefore suggests that local are the only, factors of consequence'. to the problem of f i n d i n g a p r i m a r y
answers have to be found f o r the Yet on page 119 it is a d m i t t e d that fuel to displace m u c h of the second-
r u r a l energy p r o b l e m and accepts ' b o t h social and economic conditions ary fuel used in u r b a n areas has
the view of Dr Pal ( I n d i a n A g r i - are responsible factors influencing to be based largely on coal, althou-
c u l t u r a l Research Institute) that it the choice of fuels'—some of them gh m a r g i n a l use m a y be f o u n d for
is possible to p r o v i d e the total re- appear to be accommodation condi- other p r i m a r y fuels—for instance
requirements of secondary fuel in tions, convenience, cleanliness, i n i - the forecast surpluses ' t h r o w n up as
the f o r m of fuel wood by g r o w i n g t i a l and r e c u r r i n g costs of applian- a result of the imbalance' between
trees on one side of each v i l l a g e for ces ( p p 98, 113) a n d even consumer pattern of refinery p r o d u c t i o n and
resistance to change (p 1 1 9 ) . i n t e r n a l demand c o u l d be utilised to
w h i c h 50 acres per village w o u l d be
augment gas s u p p l y . F u r t h e r re-
required. T h e report considers the cost of search and economic investigation is
50 ACRES PER V I L L A G E ! substituting the present pattern of necessary. The report is an inter-
fuel consumption by available alter- esting i n t r o d u c t i o n to the problems
The preface claims that detailed native fuels in the three cities sur-
suggestions as to how this is to be posed by the present pattern of con-
veyed t a k i n g i n t o account the rela- sumption of domestic fuels. T h e
applied are given in the concluding tive efficiencies of the fuels used (a
chapter of the report. H a r d l y , — t o time has surely come f o r much
factor insufficiently understood by greater coordination between the
paraphrase W e l l i n g t o n — i f the Coun- consumers at present) and builds up
cil believes this, it can believe any- many parts of Government concern-
a table on page 127. P r i m a r y fuels ed w i t h the p r o d u c t i o n and supply
thing! The peasants are perfectly (except electricity) are found to be
aware of the value of d u n g as a of p r i m a r y and secondary fuels.
cheaper than secondary fuels but
manure. The Government of M a d - the figures for soft coke ( f o u n d to
ras survey of the pattern of con- he the cheapest) are misleading.
s u m p t i o n of fuels in Chingleput Dis- Record Automobile Production
Elsewhere is mentioned that soft
t r i c t ( 1 9 5 1 ) quoted in the report THE p r o d u c t i o n of automobiles
coke requires f o r i g n i t i o n 20 to 25
shows quite clearly that peasants in the country showed an ap-
per cent by weight of charcoal f o r
prefer to use firewood when avail- preciable rise in 1959, the m a i n
a certain amount of Kerosene both
able. So do other studies not men- c o n t r i b u t i n g factors being the r a p i d -
more expensive fuels, If allowance
tioned in the report, so much so that ly increasing indigenous content of
is made for this the 'effective' p r i c e
Mckim M a r r i o t was many times cars, trucks a n d vehicles and l i b e r a l
difference between soft coke and
' c o r d i a l l y requested by one or an- imports of components allowed to
Kerosene is toned d o w n consider-
other H i n d u farmer to please per- the manufacturers.
ably and the latter begins to appear
f o r m my natural functions in his as a ' d i s t u r b i n g ' competitor—'dis- The total p r o d u c t i o n of cars, trucks,
field, so a- to enrich it'. ('Technolo- t u r b i n g ' since it means i m p o r t i n g buses and jeeps in 1959 amount-
gical Change in Over-developed f u r t h e r quantities of Kerosene w h i c h ed to 36,468, the highest recorded
R u r a l Areas'. Economic Develop-
is already costing the country about so far. P r o d u c t i o n in the three
ment and Cultural Change, Decem- Rs 27 crores of foreign exchange. previous years, 1956, 1957 and
ber 1952; see also M N Srinivas 1958, had been 32,138, 33,058 and
"Village Studies and T h e i r Signi- T h i s gets more serious since the 26,788 respectively.
ficance, Eastern Anthropologist report assumes that the p r i c e of soft A break-down of the 959 figure
M a r c h - A u g u s t 1 9 5 5 ) . M c - K i m M a r . coke w i l l r e m a i n constant—surely a shows that p r o d u c t i o n of cars. ( i n -
r i o t goes on to observe that the somewhat d o u b t f u l assumption, since c l u d i n g station w a g o n s ) , t r u c k s
'supply of manure has a dttect con- s o f t coke is being produced at pre- ( i n c l u d i n g buses) a n d jeep vehicles
nection w i t h p o p u l a t i o n a n d the sent by cheap b u t crude plants using amounted to 11,993, 19,099 and
pressure of p o p u l a t i o n on l a n d ' . high grade coal a n d not low grade .5,376 respectively.
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January, 1960

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