SEMAINE D'ÉTUDE SUR LE ROLE DE L’ANALYSE ECONOMETRIOUE ETC. 1097
import licences on account of shortage of foreign currency. This
difficulty can be overcome through a simple plan of gifts in
kind of replacement parts, instruments and equipment, stores,
books and journals and reprints or microfilms of scientific pa-
pers etc., to be arranged through non-governmental committees
of scientists. Such committees, which can be set up in the
advanced countries through or in cooperation with appropriate
scientific organizations or societies, would try to secure suit-
able grants from Government and other sources. In developing
countries where scientific research has already started, the
counterpart committees of scientists would also be set up, pre-
ferably, at a non-governmental level and with a majority of
members from universities and non-governmental scientific
mstitutions. All arrangements would be made with the con-
currence of the government of the less advanced country con-
cerned, but decisions relating to gifts for scientific work must
be made by direct consultations between the scientific com-
mittees themselves. A scheme of this type can be usefully
started, on an experimental basis, for a few selected countries,
at a low cost, with gifts to the total value of perhaps one or two
hundred thousand dollars per year. The amount can be in-
creased if the experiment proves successful.
6.5. Another important form of scientific aid would be to
arrange for competent research scientists from the advanced
countries to work for a year or two in existing research units
in the less advanced countries or to help in establishing high
level research units in such countries. The less advanced coun-
tries can offer challenging problems and opportunities for re-
search in many fields of science, which cannot be duplicated
in the advanced countries, for example, in geology meteorology
and geography; biology, botany, and zoology; agriculture;
medical science and public health; economics of development;
linguistics, archaeology; and historical and cultural studies of
various kinds. In some of the developing countries there would
41 Mahalanobis I - pag. 29
