OUR CONTRIBUTORS SUHAS CHATTOPADHYAT is in the Economic Research Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. Dr V A GAITONDE, is a journalist in Bombay. P MOHANAN PILLAI is research fellow at the Educational Survey Unit, rational Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. Dr K SIVATHAMBY is in the Department of Tamil and Dravidian Studies, University of Sri Lanka, Vidyodaya Campus, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka. H S VERMA is an economic consultant in Bombay. FROM THE EDITOR IN the past year, the capitalist path of development charted in the Indian Five Year Plans has run into stormy zones overshadowed by the world capitalist crisis, massive inflation, colonial heritage and intensifying internal contradictions. It was the theme of the recent Third All India Conference of the Indian School of Social Sciences. The report section of this issue of the SOCIAL SCIENTIST sums up the deliberations of the conference in a document which goes to the roots of the economic crisis and outlines alternative policies.