ABSTRACT
The government made it mandatory to have a series of auxiliary clearance certificates, which needed to be satisfied before the government issued industrial licenses. A historical inference crops up here: the high tariffs and exchange rates decapitalized the traditional industries and it this was a quite intentional policy. The vision may have been to attract newer industrial investments. At the end of the day, even the bureaucrats responsible for issuing licences admitted to being perplexed about the procedures in effect at any point in time. The prioritization of industrialization, given all the shortcomings of licensing acts, did not change the government's focus from the promotion of rural development. When it came to the industrial and financial sectors, India saw an Indira who was a step ahead of Nehru with regard to promoting socialism. By 1969, the government had already nationalized the top banking institutions of the country; by 1972, the government had achieved the same with insurance companies.
