66 SOCIAL SCIENTIST UDCs. The existing quota which the UDCs have now in these institutions is insufficient to meet their growing needs. Ultimately, the debts of the UCDs have increased from 90 billion dollars in 1971 to 626 billion dollars in 1982; the debt service charges amounted to 131.2 billion dollars in the latter year. Forty percent of the voting power on international financial institutions is controlled by 5 DCGs, and hence, in most of the cases the terms and conditions are dictated in a manner which further consolidates the grip of neo-colonialism. The average interest rate on the Third World loans which was 4.6 percent in 1972 has increased to 9 per cent in 1982. This increasing debt service burden, while resulting in a deterioration of the condtions of the underdeveloped countries on ^ the one hand, provides on the other hand a growing volume of funds to the DCCs for militarisation and capital exports. The stage of agriculture in the UDCs, Castro points out, is so poor that it is unable even to meet the demands of the increasing population at its present miserable level of subsistence. In Africa the per-capita availability of food is less than what it was in 1960. About half of the production of some major crops including maize is consumed by the cattle of some of the developed countries, whereas the number of starved people in the UDCs has crossed the figure of 500 million. Till 1940, developed countries were mainly the importers of food and the UDCs were the exporters, but in 1980 the picture has been reversed; the UDCs are compelled to import 65 million tonnes of food grains inspite of the fact that 70 to 80 percent population in these countries is engaged in agriculture. Cultivable land is decreasing in the UDCs very fast, mainly due to deforestation, desertisation, soil erosion, and with the increasing pressure of the population. Productivity in these countries is very low due to the non-mechanisation of agriculture and faulty distribution of land. About 90 percent of the mechinery which is required for mechanising agriculture has remained with the developed world. Transnational corporations further intensify the agricultural crisis in the UDCs by importing crucial products like timber, herbs etc, which is destabilising the ecological balance and also by creating artificial scarcity through charging higher prices. The case of industry hardly differs from that of agriculture in the UDCs. Most of the third world countries have yet to attain that level of industrialisation which was achieved by some of the western countries a hundred yeas ago- There is 69 percent of the world's industrial working force concentrated in the UDCs, but they are contributing merely 9 percent of the world industrial output. Even this output is not evenly distributed, but is concentrated only in 6 or 7 UDCs and is also limited to the traditional branches of industries. The modern industries of electronics, petro-chemicals, computers etc, are far away from the UDGs. Moreover 70 per cent of the industrial output of the UDCs is owned by transnational corporations. The transfer of technology by these TNCs is so oriented as to create hurdles in the process of