Panjab University economics dept gears up to welcome Manmohan Singh

Watch What Else is Making news

“We are awaiting a communication from the former PM’s office about his visit. He had initially expressed interest in a seminar format, followed by an interactive session with students. It is his prerogative, whichever way he wants it. The complete programme will be planned after the date is finalised from his office,” says Prof Upinder Sawhney, chairperson, department of economics.

Apart from the Jawahar Lal Nehru Chair, the department also has a Dr Manmohan Singh Chair. While Dr Singh is the first economist to be nominated for the Jawahar Lal Nehru Chair, Dr Manmohan Singh Chair was occupied by the late Prof Ajit Singh, from University of Cambridge, who had been a student of Dr Singh. After Ajit Singh’s death in June, 2015, Prof Yoginder K Alagh, Chancellor, Central University of Gujarat and former Union Minister, was nominated for the chair.

The department provides an office room to visiting professors. Professor Indira Rajaraman, former member of the 13th Planning Commission, had delivered lecture in February, 2015 and Professor R Nagaraj from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research IGIDR had also visited under UGC – Special Assistance Programme.

However, Dr Singh, who was a student in the department when it was located in Government College, Hoshiarpur, is likely to be provided an office in the VC’s office building when he comes. The university is also prepared to make arrangements for video conferencing from, if the former PM prefers that.

“As an honorary Professor Chair, he may choose to deliver a series of lectures, a seminar or interaction through video-conferencing. It would be his decision, depending on his schedule and duration of his stay on the campus,” said a PU official.

READ: Panjab University senate elections: Eight of 16 sitting members re-elected

Students, especially of undergraduate courses, are thrilled at the possibility that Singh may visit the campus. “It would be a lifetime experience,” says Parvaz Virk, student of BA-1. Another student, Surbhi says: “How he drafted the policies, the key economic reforms, decisions when he was the PM, there is so much we want to know from him.”

Harsimran, a student of MA-II and president of the economics society of the department, says, “Ever since he was nominated for the chair, we have been waiting eagerly for his visit. There is so much that we look forward to hear from him. He was behind the economic reforms and led the country for almost a decade.”

Apart from Singh, the economics department has had several academics who have made their mark as educationists and economists. The late G K Chadha, founding president of South Asian University, New Delhi, taught in the department. B S Minhas was another leading economist who studied in the department.

Also on its faculty were Dr G S Bhalla, former member, Planning Commission and Ex Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Price, Dr Gautam Mathur, former Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University, Dr Karam Singh Gill, former adviser, Planning Commission and former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar on its list.

At present the faculty comprises three professors (one re-employed), one associate professor, six assistant professors and one Professor Emeritus, several of whom have been providing consultation on economic and policy issues to state governments of Punjab and Haryana. The department had also submitted an independent report on Punjab for the 14th Finance Commission under Prof Sawhney.

Read: Panjab University mulls scrapping M.Ed entrance examinations

Professor Emeritus H S Shergill, a key economist in the field of agricultural economics and Director, Research at the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), is the only faculty member in the department who had been taught by the former PM, in his post-graduation and was among the students who gave him a farewell when he left.

Prof Sawhney is a Fullbright, Nehru Fellow-2013 and Professor Gurmail Singh was member of the task force that identified 150 most backward districts in India to lay the foundation for MGNREGA- Flagship programme of the government.

The department has hosted lectures from various noted economists in the recent past- Montek Singh Ahuwalia, former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Arvind Subramanian, the current Chief Economic Adviser to the Union Government of India, Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, Board of Governors, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations and Professor Pulin B Nayak, Former Director, Delhi School of Economics.

The department is also gearing up for a GST seminar scheduled for November, when several of its alumni, including those in London School of Economics, expected to be present.The department is now strengthening to build its alumni association, as suggested by Dr Singh, during his earlier visits to the university.

For more news on Panjab University, click here