Y K Alagh, An Economist Who Worked In Both Academia And Government Policy, Passed Away Aged 83
The well-known economist, professor, and former Union minister Prof. Yoginder K. Alagh passed away on December 6 at his Ahmedabad home.
Alagh is an 83-year-old retired professor at the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research in Ahmedabad.
Doctors claim that Alagh’s femur, or thighbone, was broken during a morning stroll, which caused medical issues.
Alagh, who was born in 1939 in Chakwal, modern-day Pakistan, attended the University of Rajasthan before earning a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
Alagh possibly represented the last of a group of economists who successfully bridged the worlds of academia and policymaking and who, in contrast to most, did not limit their research to a single economic area.
Think about this He oversaw the Bureau of Industrial Costs & Prices and the Agricultural Prices Commission (APC) in the 1980s. In his role as APC’s chairman, he established the organization’s econometrics unit, which advises minimum support prices for various crops and also publishes its results to foster discussion.
He started the first wave of economic changes at BICP, including price decontrol in the steel, cement, and aluminum industries.
Prior to that, in 1979, he served as the chair of a Planning Commission Task Force that established the first separate poverty thresholds for rural and urban areas based on calorie intake (less than 2,400 and 2,100, respectively). Between 1980 and 1982, Alagh served as executive vice-chairman of the Gujarat government’s Narmada Planning Group for the construction of the Sardar Sarovar multipurpose dam, and from 1987 to 1990, he served on the Planning Commission.
During the United Front administration in 1996–1998, it resulted in his appointment as a Union Minister of State with independent responsibility for Power, Science & Technology, and Planning & Programme Implementation.
Alagh made a similarly important contribution when serving as the head of a powerful committee, whose report in 2000 opened the door for the establishment of cooperative firms as producer corporations. In contrast to the rigorous state cooperative legislation, these entities—including farmer producer organizations—can now operate under the more lenient Companies Act.
Alagh’s career in academics was similarly characterized by the same expansive field. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught economics between 1964 and 1969, before going back to work as an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He later served as chairman of the Institute of Rural Management Anand and vice-chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Alagh was the first chancellor of the Central University of Gujarat in Gandhinagar and has written a regular column for The Indian Express for more than 40 years. The Indian Express last spoke with Alagh in his Ahmedabad home, Surdhara Bungalows, in January of this year, when he spoke at length about the Vibrant Gujarat summit and the state’s economy.
Alagh had also mentioned that his daughter had insisted that he visit the United States.
News Mania Desk
