Sukhamoy Chakravarty: The Economist Who Advised Three Prime Ministers

In 1971, at an unusually young age, an economist joined India’s Planning Commission. He went on to advise three different Prime Ministers.

MCQ Questions

IndEco0176

Sukhamoy Chakravarty

The economist who chaired India’s monetary reforms and advised three Prime Ministers.

1961

Joins MIT

On economist P.N. Rosenstein-Rodan’s recommendation, Chakravarty becomes an assistant professor at MIT.

1971

Joins the Planning Commission

Chakravarty is appointed to India’s Planning Commission, at an unusually young age.

December 1982

Chairs the Chakravarty Committee

RBI Governor Manmohan Singh appoints him to chair a committee reviewing India’s monetary system.

1990

Dies in New Delhi

He dies at 56, having chaired the Economic Advisory Council to three successive Prime Ministers.

Two different kinds of influence: the Chakravarty Committee’s monetary reforms were technical and institutional. Chairing the Economic Advisory Council to three Prime Ministers was broadly advisory. Don’t collapse the two into one role.

⇩ Download as image

Indian Economymcqquestion.com

Must Know

• Sukhamoy Chakravarty was born on 26 July 1934, in Mymensingh, then British India, now in Bangladesh.
• He studied at Presidency College, Calcutta, where he was a classmate of the economist Amartya Sen.
• He earned his doctorate at Erasmus University Rotterdam, under the Nobel laureate economist Jan Tinbergen.
• In 1961, on the recommendation of economist P.N. Rosenstein-Rodan, he became an assistant professor at MIT.
• From 1963, he was Sir Shankarlal Professor of Mathematical Economics at the Delhi School of Economics.
• In 1971, he was appointed to India’s Planning Commission, at an unusually young age.
• In December 1982, RBI Governor Manmohan Singh appointed him to chair a committee reviewing India’s monetary system, later known as the Chakravarty Committee.
• He died on 22 August 1990, in New Delhi, aged 56.

Good to Know

• The Chakravarty Committee submitted its report in 1985, with over 200 recommendations on India’s monetary policy and banking system.
• He later chaired the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, serving three successive Prime Ministers: Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and V.P. Singh.
• He was the first-ever recipient of both the Mahalanobis Memorial Medal and the V.K.R.V. Rao Prize.
• In 1969, he was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society.
• He also served as Vice-President of the International Economic Association, and President of the Indian Economic Association, in 1986.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. In 1971, Sukhamoy Chakravarty was appointed to which body, at an unusually young age?

The Reserve Bank of India’s board

India’s Planning Commission

The Finance Commission

The Union Public Service Commission

 Loading…

 

Great to Know

• Chakravarty had two different kinds of influence on Indian economic policy. One was technical and institutional: the Chakravarty Committee’s monetary system reforms. The other was broadly advisory: his years chairing the Economic Advisory Council across three different Prime Ministers.
• Don’t confuse Sukhamoy Chakravarty with P.C. Mahalanobis. Both are sometimes called architects of India’s Five-Year Plans, but they worked in different eras. Mahalanobis’s own model shaped the Second Plan, decades before Chakravarty’s own contributions.
• His own academic peers held him in real regard. Jan Tinbergen, his own doctoral supervisor, said after Chakravarty’s death that he had learned more from his student than the other way round.