INVENTIVENESS IN SOCIETY 47 reversing the tendency evidenced continually in advanced capitlaist countries". It is not very clear in the paper what inventions should be considered glamorous. Projects aiming at the use of nuclear energy and the development of applications of space technology in the areas of satellite communication, exploration of natural resources by remote sensing and weather information systems, and so on, have often been termed glamorous because alternatives which would have economized on scarce capital exist, and because these projects may not directly provide solutions to the problems of hunger and unemployment. The choice of allocating resources to the above-mentioned projects is ascribed mainly to the motivation of enhanced prestige. If Bagchi too considers these projects to be glamorous, there are substantial reasons for the Left to reject the concept of socialist inventions. By undertaking only those choices which economize on capital, we will be damaging the prospects of eliminating economic backwardness and hampering the development of productive forces. We will be deprived of the opportunities to derive benefits from the possibilities of making use of outer space for development and of exploiting the resources of the ocean because most of them involve utilization of global resources. Sharing of these global resources by the developed countries will be determined by our bargaining power which is a function of the capability we possess in the development and use of these technologies. These and other fast emerging technologies in the areas of materials, energy and electronics, which are extremely capital-intensive and do not promise sources of very large employment, are bound to affect seriously the outcome of struggle going on between the developing countries and the developed capitalist counties for the establishment of a new international economic order. To neglect them would mean weakening the position of the developing countries and reversing possibly whatever gains these countries may have made in recent years in the area of prices for raw materials and establishment of a new national division of labour. Bagchi's paper is not very clear regarding the criterion for the choice of technologies and principles for the design of new technologies, but the impression one gets from the suggestion of economizing greatly on capital and thus reversing the tendency evidenced continually in advanced capitalist countries is that Bagchi is arguing for labour-intensive and less capital-intensive technologies, at least in sectors where choice exists. Where and in what sectors are we to economize? Are we to economize in the extent of the use of capital-intensive techologies or