INFLATION 73 its significance due to the nature of result , the specifications yield. Inflation is more a humanitarian problem than an empirical one. A 20 percent inflation may not estrange many people of the developed economies from the fundamental necessities of life. But a mere 2 percent inflation may throw a sizable chunk of the population in India into the depth of penury. Even this basic reality has been ignored from the very start of this model building process, where it is stated that "inflation in Indian economy over the period 1951-73 has been moderate by international standards.55 M RAGHAVAN 1 Sec Prabhat Patnaik, "Current Inflation in India", and N Krishnaji, "State Intervention and Foodgrain Prices", Social Scientist, January-February, 1975. 2 Michal Kalecki, Selected Essays on the Dynamics of the Capitalist Economy, Cambridge University Press, 1971, pp 156-164. ^ Prabhat Patnaik, "Industrial Development since Independence." Social Scientist, June 1979, pp 3-19. 4 Ranjit Sau, "Indian Political Economy, 1967-77: Marriage of Wheat and Whisky," Economic and Political Weekly, April 9, 1977, pp 615-618. Ashok Mitra, Terms of Trade and Class Relation, Frank Cass, 1977. 6 Sec the interview given by Dharm Narain to Vinod Chowdhury, Cross Section^ March 1975.