Dr. Suresh Tendulkar who was the former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic advisory council passed away recently in Pune. Dr. Tendulkar joined Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s team when Dr. C Rangarajan the current chairman moved to the Rajya Sabha in 2008.
I am taking this opportunity to point out the contribution of Dr. Tendulkar to the growth of the Indian economy. Dr. Tendulkar has undertaken extensive research in the dynamics of the Indian Economy. He will be remembered for his research work on the 1991 crises that hit the Indian Economy and his follow up on research on the post liberalization of the Indian Economy.
I had the opportunity to interact with Dr. Tedulkar while I was working with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Bangalore. Dr. Tendulkar who is soft spoken, shy of the lime light and self effacing taught economics at the Delhi School of Economics. Dr. Tendulkar not only taught his students the foundation of economics but also the value system of precision and rationale thinking.
Dr. Tendulkar has done extensive research on poverty estimation and economic reforms. Dr. Suresh was of the earlier supporters of the Government’s decision to go for the liberalization of the Indian economy. He believed in the liberalization of the Indian economy and felt that this would lead to market expansion and freeing the various kinds of controls and barriers will help in the Indian economy from integrating with the global one. Dr. Tendulkar was also of the view that liberalization would unleash the market forces and it would have a direct bearing on the reduction of income distribution in India.
In 2009 Tendulkar headed a committee which came out with a method to calculate poverty in the country. The normal method of calculating poverty in India was by measuring the calorie intake in India. But the new method adopted by Dr. Tendulkar also included spending on Food, Education and health. As per the estimate based on the new Tendulkar model 37.5 % of the population is under the poverty line compared to the Government of India’s percentage of 27.5 %. This new method has raised a lot of debates among the economists within the country. This conclusion also raised doubts on the notion that India’s liberalization policy, has it really helped India’s poor to move out of poverty.
Dr. Tendulkar was an ardent supporter of the economic reforms that was shaping the new India. Tendulkar authored many books in support of economic liberalization and globalization. Noticeable among them were ‘Reintegrating India with the Global economy’ and ‘Understanding Reforms’.
Dr. Tendulkar contributed to the Disinvestment process of Public Sector Enterprises ( PSE’s) in the country . Dr. Tendulkar was part of the first Disinvestment committee in 1996 which was set up to advice the government on the disinvestment process.
Dr. Tendulkar has studied in depth the post economic reforms in India especially the growth patterns after two decades of reforms. He has done a statistical analysis of the growth story in the country. Planning Commission of India has often taken his advice on policy matters pertaining to economic growth policies.
Dr. Tendulkar was simple in all the demeanors. His love for scooters is worth mentioning. Dr. Tendulkar could be called an old and committed economist. India has lost one of those thought provoking economist and those who know him will miss him greatly.
Binu Sankar
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