Articles by Vidya Pitre

SS Roy deserves congratulations for his article on ‘India’s Trade Database’ (EPW, January 6, 2001). The various dimensions of this aspect are discussed at length critically there. In this note, we seek to pursue it, with special reference to the problem of weight allocation while constructing index number. We had earlier undertaken an exercise of constructing a quantity index, which in literature is also termed as volume index, for India’s imports, for the period 1960-61 to 1970-71. An article containing the results of it was published, titled ‘Trends in India’s Imports’ in EPW issue dated May 9, 1981. Against this backdrop, the following is an attempt to clarify the concept of index number. It appears to be simple but perhaps is not so when examined little closely.

Private Corporate Sector Vidya Pitre This paper is an empirical analysis of trends in foreign exchange earnings and expenditure of the private cpr- porate sector over the period 1960-61 to 1987-88. It is based on data from the RBI Survey Reports on Foreign Collaborations and the RBI Studies on Finances of Medium and Large Public and Private Limited Companies and Foreign Controlled Rupee Companies. Three distinct phases are identified' (i) 1960-61 to 1972-73 (ii) 1974-75 to 1977-78 and (iii) 1978-79 to 1987-88, each characterised by a different set of policies, state of the industrial economy and foreign trade and payments situation.

A Study of Trends in India's Imports,
Vidya Pitre Ample basic data on India's foreign trade are available, but they cannot be said to be satisfactory in all respects. The difficulty is that there have been hardly any attempts to put the data in a readely comparable, systematic, statistical series.


Charasuthien and Narong Kittika- chorn, all hardline anti-communist military dictators who had outlived their usefulness to the US after the Kissinger/Nixon, switch to 3 policy of accommodation with Peking.