Eminent economist K N Raj passes away

mtoday

Thiruvanathapuram, Feb 10: Eminent economist Kakkadan Nandanath Raj, who had made significant contribution in preparing India’s first Five Year Plan, died in Thiruvanathapuram on Wednesday, family sources said.

Raj (85) had been under treatment for old-age related health problems for quite some time. He is survived by two sons, including journalist Gopal Raj.

A London School of Economics (LSE) alumnus, Raj served as economic adviser to Prime Ministers from Jawaharlal Nehru to P V Narasimha Rao. He had significant contribution in preparing the first Five Year Plan as an expert member in the Planning Commission. Then he was only 26 years old.

A distinguished academician, he also headed the Economics Department of Delhi University and later served as its Vice-Chancellor from October 1969 to December 1970.

He was one of those instrumental in setting up the Delhi School of Economics and also taught there around the same time when incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen was in its faculty.

In the 1970s, he returned to his home state Kerala and founded the Centre for Development Studies, an institution for applied economics and social science research.
Author of several works, he had delivered lectures in leading universities in India and abroad.