The University of Hyderabad (UoH) finally got its own School of Economics along the lines of the prestigious Delhi School of Economics.
Prof. Abhijit Sen, a member of the Planning Commission, inaugurated the new school on the UoH campus on Monday.
The proposal to set up the School of Economics at UoH had been pending for nearly four years. UoH now has the state’s first dedicated school of economics and the 11th such school to be set up in the country.
The new school will offer MA, M.Phil and Ph.D programmes in Economics.
In his Foundation Day lecture at the newly formed school, Prof. Sen said that there is very little predictability and very little agreement on issues and solutions pertaining to the economy.
“Economists have lost much of their value as they have not been able to live up to expectations in the face of the global financial crisis and the subsequent slowdown that started in 2007.
Problem solving would be one area that institutions and economists could focus on,” Prof. Sen said.
He predicted a positive growth of 1-1.5 per cent this year in agriculture, though advance estimates of the kharif output shows a steep decline in value terms over last year.
Prof. Sen cautioned that the price of coarse cereals, mainly used as livestock feed, would shoot up if the government does not act quickly by releasing more food grain stocks into the market.
“Any delayed action from the government side will impact the price of milk and livestock products, which have so far remained stable,” he said.
Referring to inflation, Prof. Sen said that the general direction is down from the eight per cent level, though it will remain high in the next couple of months due to the impact of the recent increase in fuel prices.
He said that suicides by farmers have come down nationally, barring some incidents in Vidarbha and West Bengal, and added that farmers end up in debt because they grow risky crops.