Curriculum Indian Economists and Their Ideas
Indian Economists and Their Ideas
Sixteen Indian economists who shaped how we understand India and the world: from R.C. Dutt's economic history and Gadgil's cooperatives to V.K.R.V. Rao's national income, K.N. Raj, Raj Krishna's "Hindu rate of growth", Chakravarty, I.G. Patel, Manmohan Singh, Rangarajan, Dasgupta, Dixit, Basu, Bina Agarwal, Raghuram Rajan, Gita Gopinath and Arvind Subramanian.
- R.C. Dutt: The Economic History of India How Romesh Chunder Dutt, a civil servant and nationalist, wrote a two-volume economic history criticising British land revenue and trade policies in India. 📄 Read-aloud
- D.R. Gadgil: Cooperatives and Planning How D.R. Gadgil led the Gokhale Institute, championed cooperatives, served as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and created the Gadgil formula for sharing funds with states. 📄 Read-aloud
- V.K.R.V. Rao: Measuring India's Income How V.K.R.V. Rao produced pioneering estimates of India's national income in the 1930s and founded institutions like the Delhi School of Economics. 📄 Read-aloud
- K.N. Raj: Planning and the Kerala Model How K.N. Raj helped draft India's First Five-Year Plan, founded the Centre for Development Studies in Kerala, and studied Kerala's development path. 📄 Read-aloud
- Raj Krishna and the "Hindu Rate of Growth" How Raj Krishna coined the phrase "Hindu rate of growth" for India's slow growth of about 3.5 percent from the 1950s to 1980s, and his research on farmers' responses to prices. 📄 Read-aloud
- Sukhamoy Chakravarty: Planning and Money How Sukhamoy Chakravarty shaped Indian planning theory and chaired the 1985 committee that reformed the RBI's approach to money supply. 📄 Read-aloud
- Indian Economists and Their Ideas: Checkpoint 1 Quick checkpoint - five questions on R.C. Dutt, Gadgil, V.K.R.V. Rao, K.N. Raj and Raj Krishna. 5 questions
- I.G. Patel: Governor and Institution Builder How I.G. Patel served as RBI Governor during the 1978 demonetisation, later became the first Indian director of the London School of Economics, and led IIM Ahmedabad. 📄 Read-aloud
- Manmohan Singh: Economist in Power How economist Manmohan Singh studied India's export pessimism, served as RBI Governor, led the 1991 reforms as finance minister and became prime minister from 2004 to 2014. 📄 Read-aloud
- C. Rangarajan: Ending Automatic Monetisation How C. Rangarajan as RBI Governor ended the automatic financing of government deficits by printing money, and chaired committees on poverty and sugar. 📄 Read-aloud
- Partha Dasgupta: Nature as Capital How Cambridge economist Partha Dasgupta argued that nature is an asset that economies deplete without measuring, and how his 2021 review on biodiversity influenced policy. 📄 Read-aloud
- Avinash Dixit: Strategy and Monopolistic Competition How Princeton economist Avinash Dixit co-created the Dixit-Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition, and popularised game theory in "Thinking Strategically". 📄 Read-aloud
- Kaushik Basu: Child Labour and Policy How Kaushik Basu studied child labour and the economics of law, served as India's Chief Economic Adviser and became World Bank chief economist. 📄 Read-aloud
- Bina Agarwal: Women and Land How Bina Agarwal's research on women's land rights, especially "A Field of One's Own", influenced the 2005 reform giving Hindu daughters equal inheritance rights. 📄 Read-aloud
- Raghuram Rajan: Warnings and Reforms How Raghuram Rajan warned of financial risks at Jackson Hole in 2005, served as RBI Governor from 2013 to 2016, and pushed banks to recognise bad loans. 📄 Read-aloud
- Gita Gopinath: Dollars and the IMF How Gita Gopinath's research showed the US dollar dominates trade pricing, and how she became IMF chief economist in 2019 and later its First Deputy Managing Director. 📄 Read-aloud
- Arvind Subramanian: JAM and Twin Balance Sheets How Arvind Subramanian as Chief Economic Adviser coined the "JAM trinity" and "twin balance sheet problem", proposed a universal basic income, and later questioned India's GDP estimates. 📄 Read-aloud