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India misplaced a staunch advocate of information high quality and an empirical evaluation guru with the passing of Professor A Vaidyanathan on June 10th evening. Vaidyanathan, former Member, Planning Fee and former Professor on the Madras Institute of Growth Research and Centre for Growth Research, Trivandrum, handed away in Coimbatore. A number of the finest brains in Indian financial system, banking, finance, agriculture, water and cooperatives have both been his college students or took him as their guru.
Most normal enterprise and financial system readers could affiliate him with the celebrated Vaidyanathan committee set as much as strengthen rural cooperative credit score establishments. His consideration to information and its high quality, was evident throughout the stint. Professor M S Sriram on the Indian Institute of Administration, Bangalore (IIMB), who was additionally a part of the committee, recollects of Vaidyanathan’s request to the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI) to spare a statistician to do information evaluation. The ultimate report even carried an annexure with rigorous information evaluation – one thing not widespread in knowledgeable committee experiences.
“I first met him 50 years in the past when he was chief of perspective planning division within the planning fee and I wished to organize a state perspective plan. He guided me as my guru and impressed me to proceed to work on public coverage,” says Y V Reddy, the previous governor of the RBI.
Reddy says, “by way of empirical analysis and information high quality, he was among the many prime in India”. “I continued to attract on his steering and even met him in Chennai final 12 months earlier than he moved to Coimbatore,” he provides.
Calling him a “guru of all economists”, Professor M S Sriram, remembers his first assembly with Vaidyanathan in 2004 when Sriram joined as a member of the Vaidyanathan committee.
“I used to be cautioned by many who he was a tough job grasp. Whereas he was a troublesome instructor, he was additionally superb natured, thoughtful individual. He was enjoyable to be with too. He typically shared facet tales to varied developments. However then, he by no means compromised on information”.
Among the many few to know him each as an academician and at a private stage is YSP Thorat, the previous chairman of the Nationwide Financial institution of Agriculture and Rural Growth (NABARD).
Vaidyanathan, whereas engaged on the agricultural cooperative credit score establishments developed deep friendship with Thorat. Vaidyanathan would endearingly name Thorat by his first identify ‘Yashwant’. Vaidyanathan started work on rural cooperative credit score establishments by asking Thorat to inform him one motive why these establishments wanted to exist. Quickly after, on Vaidyanathan’s suggestion, Thorat was touring throughout India for about two months to search out a solution.
“He had extraordinary humility, permitting everybody to have a say. He was not dogmatic. He was at all times able to debate. He understood individuals’s struggling and the necessity to assist. Basically, he was a instructor who may encourage you,” says Thorat.
His spouse and former deputy governor of RBI, Usha Thorat, referring to his speech on the Madras Institute of Growth Research in 2018, says, “essentially the most exceptional factor about Vaidyanathan was the way in which he thought individuals ought to examine economics” .
Apart from chairing the federal government of India’s Activity Pressure on Revival of Cooperative Credit score Establishments (2004) or the Vaidyanathan committee as we all know it as we speak, he was a member of the Ok.N. Raj Committee on Taxation of Agricultural Revenue (1969-70). A pupil of Loyola School, Madras, Dr Vaidyanathan earned his doctoral diploma in economics from Cornell College, US.
He joined the Nationwide Council of Utilized Financial Analysis in 1956. His colleagues at NCAER on the time included the late Dr Ashok Mitra, former finance minister of West Bengal. From 1962 to 1972 Dr Vaidyanathan was a member of the attitude planning division of the Planning Fee and labored carefully with Pitambar Pant, throughout which interval he had a stint on the Meals and Agricultural Organisation, Rome.
After a time period on the World Financial institution (1972-76) he returned house to hitch Professor Ok.N. Raj as a member of the college of Centre for Growth Research, Thiruvananthapuram. Vaidyanathan was carefully related to state stage planning in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He was actively concerned in growing India’s statistical system and the nationwide pattern survey. His scholarly work coated agricultural coverage, water administration and nationwide statistics.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram, describes Vaidyanathan “as a pillar of educational neighborhood and one who influenced the considering of hundreds of scholars, lecturers, civil servants and political leaders”.
Few could know that Vaidyanathan, when he was a member of the central board of the Reserve Financial institution of India, survived the terrorist assault at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Lodge in November 2008.
‘Mr Information’ as his college students used to name him, will probably be sorely missed.
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