John Kenneth Galbraith, professor of Economics and an expert on agriculture and development, has been appointed high-level consultant to the Indian government on problems of economic expansion. Effective this week, Galbraith will advise on the goals of India's Second Five Year Plan, scheduled to begin in July.

Galbraith, currently on sabbatical leave, will serve as adviser to the Planning Commission of the Indian Government, while on the staff of the Indian Statistical Institute of Calcutta, according to a Madras newspaper, "The Hindu." He is expected to return to Cambridge in September.

The appointment of an American expert to the planning body follows the earlier naming of Polish professor Oscar Lange to a similar position. The simultaneous use of Western and Communist advisers "shows a type of parity between varying economic views" in the planning for India's economic future, according to Sharada Prasad, an associate Nieman Fellow and news editor of the Bombay "India Express."

Professor Galbraith, author of "The Great Crash" and other economic monographs, has served in a similar capacity to the government of Puerto Rico.