Professor A Vaidyanathan has served the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) with great distinction as a Professorial Fellow during the period 1976 through 1984. He was also an acting Director of the Centre during a very brief period in early 1981. Subsequently, he was Chairman of the Governing Body (1998-2002) and was also an Honorary Fellow of the Centre until his passing away. Professor Vaidyanathan had great affection and interest for the Centre and he kept in touch with our activities and was always available for advice and discussing difficulties.
Professor Vaidyanathan has a PhD in Economics from Cornell University, USA and has worked for the UN FAO and the World Bank, Washington, D.C. He has also worked at the National Council of Applied Economic Research and the Madras Institute of Development Studies.
Vaidi, as he is affectionately referred to, has been an empirical researcher par excellence and a great teacher. He is very well known for his mastery over most databases on India’s economy and especially those dealing with agriculture and the rural economy. He kept writing very scholarly and policy-relevant pieces until the very end. He has a phenomenal published work to his credit. A select list of his books is stated below. Recently CDS was privileged to publish a collection of all his papers.
As a teacher and thesis supervisor, he has gone on to graduate many scholars who are very well known in India’s academic establishment at present. You can see Vaidi’s training on the use of empirical data to unravel well-known puzzles of India’s economy writ large in their writings. Through them, his strong but theoretically informed empirical tradition will continue to flourish and illuminate important debates.
We at the Centre will sorely miss him and would like to pass on our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family.
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