Pulapre Balakrishnan

Contributor

BIOGRAPHY

Pulapre Balakrishnan is an applied economist specializing in macroeconomics and development. Educated in Moscow, Madras, and New Delhi, he trained as an economist at Oxford and Cambridge. He has held academic positions at Oxford University, the Indian Statistical Institute, IIM Kozhikode, and Ashoka University, and has worked with institutions like the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, the Reserve Bank of India, and the United Nations Development Program. Currently, he is Honorary Visiting Professor at the Centre for Development Studies and Visiting Professor at Krea University (2024–25). A prominent voice in India’s economic discourse for over three decades, he has published widely, including the books Pricing and Inflation in India (1991), Economic Growth in India (2010), and India’s Economy from Nehru to Modi (2022).

Primary Contributions (1)

economy of India

India’s economy has undergone profound shifts since the country gained independence in 1947, evolving from a largely agrarian system to a high-tech economic powerhouse. Initially shaped by state-led industrialization, the country later embraced free market reforms that opened avenues for private…

Publications (3)

India’s Economy From Nehru To Modi:: A Brief History (March 2023)

By Pulapre Balakrishna

How has India’s economy fared over the first seventy-years of the country’s independence? More specifically, how has India’s economic journey impacted the life of the Indian citizen? Have the various economic measures and reforms since 1947 improved or worsened matters for the people? These are the core issues addressed within this concise and accessible book. Given India’s large population, there has always been great interest internationally in the steps taken to shape the country’s economy and...

Economic Growth in India: History and Prospect (September 2010)

By Pulapre Balakrishnan

It is a measure of the youthfulness of economics as a discipline that two centuries after the appearance of Adam Smith's landmark treatise The Wealth of Nations, an economist has posed the question "How do economies grow?" This comprehensive study of economic growth in India is intended as aresponse to this question. As history, it surveys the half century from the end of colonial rule to the present; as prognosis, it focuses on what we may expect in the immediate future.Drawing upon...

Pricing and Inflation in India (June 1992)

By Pulapre Balakrishnan

This study examines inflation in the Indian economy from 1950 to 1980. It emphasizes modelling price behavior in the principal productive sectors of the economy. Within its clearly defined model selection, this work decisively counterposes alternative explanations of inflation.