ABSTRACT
Since India had a history of the development of western-style secondary and higher education stretching back to the nineteenth century, her need to rely on foreign technical assistance has been very slight, compared with that of many other developing countries. Over the fifteen years of the first three Plans, fewer than 5,000 foreign experts of all kinds visited the country and fewer than 15,000 Indians travelled abroad for training financed by aid (Bhagwati and Desai, 1970, 213). This probably overstates the impact of technical assistance because some of the foreign experts’ visits will have been brief and largely ceremonial, while, as will be explained later, the nature of some of the training abroad provided to Indians is general and diffuse. The years up to 1970 were mainly concerned with project-related aid, largely in the industrial sector and in the public sector, while in the years since 1970, more emphasis has come to be placed on aid to large-scale development programmes focused on aspects of agricultural extension, irrigation and credit, forestry, dairying, family planning and health.
