IG Patel as Deputy Economic Adviser

As the Chairman of the Planning Commission, Prime Minister Nehru signs the draft first five year plan in 1951. To his right is Gulzarilal Nanda, Deputy Chairman. Behind Nanda is RK Patil (ICS, 1931), Member, who resigned from the service in 1943 for social work. Partially covered behind him is probably N Raghavan Pillai (ICS,1922), Cabinet Secretary and ex-officio Secretary to the Commission. To his right is Tarlok Singh, the Deputy Secretary, who served for long on the Commission earning it the moniker, Tarlok Sabha. Behind him is a young KN Raj, 27, who prepared the draft. To Nehru’s left are, in that order, CD Deshmukh, Finance Minister and Member, GL Mehta, later Indian Ambassador to the US (1952-58), and VT Krishnamachari, who we meet again and will encounter again.

Dr IG Patel’s tenure as Deputy Economic Adviser lasted from 1954 to 1959. By then, the first five year plan was already in progress. The work on the second plan had started. In the third part on IG’s life, we discuss a few major developments and other anecdotes. A detailed discussion on the second plan follows in another post. Continue reading “IG Patel as Deputy Economic Adviser”

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Hawick to Hawick: Life of James Wilson

Portrait of James Wilson

This post is a longer version of my article on James Wilson, the first Finance Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council, which was published in Business Standard dated 21 January 2021. Please see the link here. Wilson was also the Founder of The Economist, and the Standard Chartered Bank. He presented the first Indian budget in 1860, and introduced income tax in the country. He also laid the foundations for introducing government paper currency in India the Indian Police, and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, among other things. Continue reading “Hawick to Hawick: Life of James Wilson”

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My first lessons in central banking

Though I joined University College, Trivandrum, in 1978, for my BA (Economics), I shifted to the Government Arts College, Thycaud, Trivandrum, within a few months. This was for two reasons. First, Arts College offered Mathematics as a subsidiary as against History in University College. Second, Banking System was one of the optional papers at the Arts College, as against some other subject in University College. Continue reading “My first lessons in central banking”

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