NOTES 57 Assets of the largest 20 industrial houses increased from Rs 1780 crores in 1963-64 to 2752 crores in 1967-68. To take individual houses, the assets ofTatas, the biggest of them all, which stood at Rs 94 crores in 1950-51, increased to Rs 584.6 crores in 1968, Rs 850 crores in 1972 and to an estimated Rs 1000 crores today. Birlas have increased their assets from 50 crores in 1950 to 575'6 crores in 1968 and are almost on a par with Tatas at present. Another indicator of concentration is the number of product industries under these houses. Out of 232 product industries grouped by ILPIC, Birlas manufacture the largest number (106) followed by Tatas(66). The total number of companies under 20 large industrial houses are 1055 of which 203 are under Birlas. The Biria Jute Manufacturing Company which processed jute till 1954 has now established enterprises for the production of calcium, cotton yarn, cement and other products. The biggest cement trust, Associated Cement Company, controls sixteen factories, two coal mines, a refractory material plant and a heavy engineering enterprise. Delhi Cloth Mills is a striking example of the evolution of monopolies. It controls not only textile mills but vanaspati, sugar, chemical'and fertilizer industries among other things. According to the Monopolies Inquiry Commission, Birlas control 66 per cent of the production of cars, 75 per cent of cotton textile machinery, 27 per cent of electric fans, 24 per cent of railway wagons and 16 per cent of room air-conditioners. Steel ingots, industrial machines, oils and soaps are under the domain of the Tatas. Empire-building under State Patronage Thus we have two types of economic concentration in India: product concentration, where the manufacture of a particular product is concentrated in a single concern or a group of concerns controlled by a single family or a business house; inter-industrv concentration where one individual or family is controlling a large number of concerns producing different commodities. These groups do not fit into a textbook definition of monopoly in the sense of single product firms like Marshall or Chamberlain or diversified giant corporations like Penrose or Robin Morris. The kind of concentration prevalent in India enables a firm or a house to adopt monopolistic trade practices as a dominant producer. They have assumed monopoly power also through restrictive trade practices. Various factors have contributed towards increased concentration. ' The large industrial houses do not miss a single opportunity to expand capacity and start new industrial units. How they manage to grab licences at the expense of new entrepreneurs, inspitc of all pronouncements to the contrary, has been dealt with exhaustively by R K Hazari and the Dutt Committe. Multiple licences for the same product, foreclosure and pre-emption of industrial capacity and non-implementation of licences aie only some of the means to forestall small entrepreneurs, achieve monopoly power and strengthen their grip over the economy. Financial