FUND-BANK STRATEGY ' 29' that the Indian economy is being opened up to increasing external intervention. In passing it may be said that as for the argument that India will not be subject to pressures that smaller Third World nations are subject to by the Fund-Bank advisprs we must not miss the fact that such pressure on India may infact come through its own nationals who occupy influential positions of power, have been fully indoctrinated into the Fund-Bank ideology^ and infact have been Fund-Bank staff themselves. In this context what is material is the nature of the economic policy being pursued and not so much the direction from which pressures in its favour are coming. Further it may be added that even if India has historically emerged as a stronger Third World nation during the post-war period the kind of policy being advocated now by the Fund-Bank ideologues will not only weaken this anti-imperialist character of the Indian state but draw it closer into neo-colonial dependence. Indeed, that is the historical experience of all nations which have traversedl the full path of the Fund-Bank economic strategy. There are therefore two sides to this coin of the new economic strategy in India. On the one side are the 'Fund and the Bank and the foreign multinationals longing to secure a foothold in the Indian economy. On'the other side are certain influential segments of the Indian monopolists and of the present Indian government willing to collaborate with them in return for short term gains for the property-owning classes in India. Cementing the two sides are the ex-employees of multinationals and of the Fund and the Bank presiding over the policy formulating establishments of the Indian government. The amalgamation is complete. II The Fund-Bank Policy Frame A fairly extensive body of literature is now available on the theoretical apparatus and the historical experience of Fund-Bank economic policy.. Needless to add, the Fund is concerned with short or medium term (2 to 5 years) financing in die area of a country's external payments while the Bank is concerned with long term (5 to 20 years) financing of development oriented programmes. However, despite the fact that the Fund concerns itself with only short and medium term financing and the Bank funds development programmes both are known to offer and administer fairly long-term 'stabilisation' and 'structural adjustment programmes in a debtor nation. It would be naive to assume that either of these programmes will not fundamentally alter a nation's strategy of economic development especially when it has infact not conformed earlier to the normal Fund-Bank strategy. In short, even where the time profile of a 'stabilisation* or 'structural adjustment' programme recommended by the Fund or the Bank may be short, its economic implications for the entire strategy of economic development in a debtor nation would be both long-term and of a fairly fundamental nature. The devaluation of the national currency, restraint on public investment and expenditure, concessions to foreign capital and deregulation of the economy, both internally and externally, and so on are policies which have