Finances. – During the decade under review, the central government budget was constantly in deficit. Initially, the swelling of global public spending was determined by events and measures of an extraordinary nature: the problem of the accommodation of refugees transferred from Pakistan, following the partition of India into two independent states; increase in military spending, consequent to the tension originally manifested in relations between the two new states; etc. In 1951, the extension to the Indian Union of the global inflationary wave, caused by the outbreak of the conflict in Korea, threatened to compromise the general financial and monetary equilibrium; but the authorities reacted with great energy. The central bank raised the official discount rate in November 1951 and, to reinforce its restrictive effects, it put an end to the policy of supporting the prices of government bonds, which had previously made possible the monetization of public debt; while the government raised taxes on income and taxes on certain categories of exports, benefiting exceptionally from the effect of the Korean conflict.
Therefore, the implementation of the first five-year plan could start in a situation of fundamental financial stability. Despite the scale of the programs and the achievements, only towards the end of the five-year period did the economic and financial equilibrium deteriorate considerably, and the situation worsened in the following years due to the beginning of the execution of the much more ambitious second five-year plan. Half of the financing of public expenditure should be ensured by tax revenues (8 billion rupees), by issuing medium and long-term loans (12 billion) and by the availability of pension funds, by profits from the railways, etc. (4 billion). The other half should be provided with central bank loans and issuance of short-term treasury bonds (12 billion), with loans and aid granted from abroad (8 billion) and with measures that have yet to be defined (4 billion). Since the beginning of the implementation of the second five-year plan, there have been tensions in the price level, the public finance deficit has increased sharply and the imbalance in external payments has seriously worsened. To reduce the resulting pressure on foreign exchange reserves, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and several countries (the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, West Germany, USSR and Japan) have granted the Indian Union substantial credits in the latter. years.
The monetary unit is the rupee. Following a provision, adopted by the central government in 1955 and entered into force on 10 April 1957, the old subdivision (i rupia – 16 annas, or 64 pice or 192 pies) was replaced with the decimal one (i rupia – 100 naye paise). The old coins are still in circulation, but will gradually be withdrawn and demonetized. The exchange rate of 13.33 rupees per 1 pound has been kept unchanged since 1931. When the latter was devalued in 1949, a new parity with gold was also declared for the rupee (0.186621 grams of fine). and with the dollar (4.7619 rupees per 1 US dollar). With a law enacted in 1948 and entered into force on January 1, 1949, the central bank (Reserve Bank) was nationalized. Its credit management and supervisory powers were subsequently strengthened by the 1949 Banking Act. As of March 31, 1958, 92 licensed banks operated in the Indian Union, with a total of 3,393 branches owned by the Indian Union.
Communications and transport. – In the years 1955-56, the tonnage of small-scale coastal vessels increased to 315,000 gross tons and that of deep-sea vessels to 283,000 tons. In the same years the network of national roads was 12,500 miles, that of regional roads was 20,600 miles. The railway network is constantly developing and so is the number of cars and locomotives. From the beginning of the first five-year plan to the end of 1953, 100 locomotives, 1751 passenger cars, 13,754 railway wagons were built in India; 350 locomotives and 307 passenger cars were imported from abroad. Also within the framework of the first five-year plan, the drilling of the Banihal tunnel in the Pīr Panjāl chain was undertaken, which will greatly facilitate communications with Kashmir, and, when completed, it will be the longest road tunnel in the world. India currently has three international airports: Santa Cruz (Bombay), Dum Dum (Calcutta), and Palam (Delhi) and is connected by air with Aden, Afghānistān, Burma, Ceylon, France, Indonesia, England, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal and Pakistan. On May 23, 1953, all civilian airlines were nationalized and from June 15 of the same year they were managed by two government companies: Air Indian International (intercontinental services) and India Airlines (internal services and with neighboring countries). France, Indonesia, England, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal and Pakistan. On May 23, 1953, all civilian airlines were nationalized and from June 15 of the same year they were managed by two government companies: Air Indian International (intercontinental services) and India Airlines (internal services and with neighboring countries). France, Indonesia, England, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal and Pakistan. On May 23, 1953, all civilian airlines were nationalized and from June 15 of the same year they were managed by two government companies: Air Indian International (intercontinental services) and India Airlines (internal services and with neighboring countries).
According to HOMEAGERLY, the postal distribution network extends for 260,000 km, 24% of which are served by railways, 17% by motor vehicles, 5% by steamships, animal-drawn wagons and pack animals; the remaining 54% is covered by couriers on foot and by small boats. The telegraph network includes 1 million 255 thousand km of cable. The broadcasting services depend on All India Radio which as of August 31, 1959 had 1,684,378 subscribers. On 15 September of the same year, the first experimental television station was inaugurated in Delhi.
Foreign trade. – The value of exports rose from 4233 million rupees in 1948-49 to 5830 million in 1954-55; the value of imports fell from Rs.6631 million in 1948-49 to Rs.6361 million in 1954-55, with all this still remaining excessively high and weighing heavily on the Indian economy as mentioned above in the paragraph on the economy. In 1955 Italy imported products from India for a value of 1,185.1 million lire. The goods that India has mainly imported from Italy are artificial and synthetic textile fibers and their yarns, iron and steel products, machine tools and machinery in general, the products of the metalworking and railway industry, aluminum and its alloys, chemical fertilizers. Italy in turn imported kapok pepper from India,
