Madhusudan_Das

170 Madhusudan Das:
leaders in the economic field ? Orissa is slowly and steadily running the
race as the fable's tortoise and certainly the goal will be reached under the
auspices of the Planning Commission which is now determined to eliminte
regional imbalances. The natural resources will be fully developed and
the G.N.P. will move up. But to what extent the 'Oriyas' will shed away
their backwardness and by what year will be for the future to speak. It is
said -
Although the 'underdevelopment'of natural resources may cause
the 'backwardness' of the people, it does not necessarily follow
that any efficient development of natural resources resulting in
an increase in total output will always and pari passu reduce the
backwardness of people. On the contrary, the problem of economic
backwardness in many countries has been made more acute, not
because the natural resources have remained 'underdeveloped',
but because they have been as fully and rapidly developed as
market conditions permitted while the inhabitants have been
left out, being either unable or unwilling or both to participate
fully in the process. 6
Development of the human resources on macro and micro level can help
resolving the problem.
Mr. Das was certainly 'rational' and not traditional : he was a
nonconformist and charismatic. An economy of for its accelerated
modernization requires such men. But the countries past culture, social
attitudes inherited from the past will definitely create barriers for the free
play of these entrepreneurs. By the fifties of this century it has been
eloquently recognised that it is not mere capital formation that is the
only causation of growth but the key point is entrepreneurship.
"Entrepreneurship and innovation inherently involve a disruption of status
and a potential disturbance to social relationships. In such societies
entrepreneurship is thus discouraged by prevailing attitudes and prevented
by established institutions, even in the face of demonstrable economic
benefits that would result from innovation." 7 In order to weaken the
barriers what is required is transmission and transference of the promethean
spirit into galaxies of men who are prepared for the Beruf or the 'Calling'.
The spread over is to be fast and deep-rooted from time to time with the
continuity of the process strengthened and sustained. The middle-class
should be the seed bed for such a transformation of society.
It is the 'elite group' that perceives a change with different values
in life and prepares for an exchange of security with change. This sets in