ABSTRACT
The Kingdom of Bhutan, with just over a million people, is a landlocked Himalayan country bounded by China’s Tibetan plateau and the Assam-Bengal plains of north-eastern India. It relies heavily on foreign financial aid and technical assistance, mainly through the Colombo Plan. Although its people’s racial and cultural affinities are with Tibet and Nepal, Bhutan’s close economic links are with India rather than Tibet. The use of Bhutanese and Indian currency is replacing barter as the principal means of exchange. India has been financing Bhutan’s economic development plans, and its pledge for the Third Five-Year-Plan was $47.2 million, compared with $26.6 million for the Second Five-Year-Plan. Forests, meadows, and grasslands cover much of Bhutan. Bhutanese postage stamps remain the major source of foreign exchange. The 18,000-kilowatt Jaldhaka River plant provides power to West Bengal and south-western Bhutan.
