(The late) Dr. N A Mujumdar
We have to judge the Indian development experience in the broader context of disillusionment with development economics as a discipline. The frontiers of development economics are expanding further. The “commitment deficit” of our policy makers and development administration, as we will spell out shortly, is impairing the outcome of our development efforts. The recent mass outburst against widespread corruption raises another related issue of national character. Do these developments reinforce the imperative need to build a value-based and compassionate society? We should ponder.
The late Dr. N A Mujumdar (1930-2014) was a celebrated economist and the long serving editor of the Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Senior Professor and Adviser at the Society for Development Studies, New Delhi.
Dr. Mujumdar began his career as lecturer in what was then known as the School of Economics, University of Bombay and was selected as Nuffield Scholar, Oxford. On his return to India, he joined the Reserve Bank of India, Economic Department. He was the Adviser-in-Charge, Credit Planning Cell (later known as Monetatry Policy Department) and subsequently as Principal Adviser in the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy.
During his stint in the RBI, he was sought by the International Monetary Fund which placed him for long-term assignments in five Central Banks- Zambia, Mauritius,Tanzania,Belize and Combodia- a unique record in the annals of the RBI.
He was also Adviser to the Central Bank of India and the Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC) and a regular columnist for many years with The Economic Times and The Hindu BusinessLine. He has a number of books to his credit including books on Financial Sector Reforms, including Reforms and India's Economic Development" (Two volumes 2002), Economic Reforms Sans Development (2004), and Inclusive Growth: Development Perspectives in Indian Economy (2007).
These pages carry his select columns, particularly the writings he specifically sent to one of the Founders of The Billion Press, Jagdish Rattanani, when he learned Jagdish had moved to a faculty position at a noted B-School, the SPJIMR, and has involved in teaching an innovate course called the Science of Spirituality under SPJIMR's then Dean, Dr. M L Shrikant. These select writings, lectures and columns, including an excerpt from one of his books, focus on the "why" of financial inclusion, apart from commenting of the state of affairs at the time of the global financial crisis and the lessons India might learn from that meltdown.
Dr. Mujumdar wrote some of his last newspaper columns for the Free Press Journal at the time Jagdish Rattanani was the business editor and turned the business pages to standout for a sharp focus on the common person. Dr. Mujumdar came on board at the behest of Mr. S S Tarapore, who also worked alongside to run his own Indian language columns syndicate and later help found The Billion Press.