Said to be inspired by philosopher and religious thinker Sree Narayana Guru, KN Raj was an economist known for his deep concern for the poor.
Published May 14, 2024 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated May 16, 2024 | 11:30 AM
File photo of KN Raj. (Wikimedia Commons)
The birth centenary of Kakkadan Nandanath Rajan — affectionately remembered as KN Raj, a luminary figure in India’s economic landscape — is being celebrated across the nation.
His pioneering contributions continue to shape the nation’s development trajectory.
He also left an indelible mark as a teacher, economist, policy maker, and institution builder.
Raj’s influence resonates profoundly through his seminal work on India’s first Five-Year Plan at the tender age of 26.
He crafted pivotal sections including the introductory chapter, laying the groundwork for India’s planned economic development.
His foresight and strategic acumen were further showcased in his role in bolstering India’s rate of savings in the post-World War II era and meticulously computing the nation’s balance of payments for the first time for the Reserve Bank of India.
But perhaps Raj’s most enduring contribution lay in the establishment of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram and in shaping what later came to be called the “Kerala model of development”.
Set up in 1970, the CDS was envisioned as a leading institution for social science research and education as well as an institute for applied economics research.
CDS main building
Two key factors fuelled its creation, documents the souvenir released as part of the CDS’ 50th foundation year in 2021.
Nationally, the Indian government established the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) in 1969. This council aimed to strengthen social science research in India, recognising limitations in the existing university system. The ICSSR saw a need for “centres of excellence” to drive this advancement.
Regionally, the Kerala government, under C Achutha Menon, sought to actively support development research. The state government believed strong research would provide valuable intellectual input for Kerala’s development plans.
To achieve this, Menon invited Professor KN Raj, a respected economist, to help establish a dedicated institution.
Raj, then with the Delhi School of Economics, accepted the invitation and took the initiative to set up the CDS as an autonomous institution with funding from both the ICSSR and the Kerala government.
Since its inception, the Centre has undertaken a series of innovations beginning with the use of low-cost building construction techniques. The campus has been entirely designed and constructed by the well-known architect Laurie Raker as ‘the Centre was conscious of the need for economizing its expenditure on buildings.’
CDS
As per the book CDS – Masterpiece of a Master Architect, jointly published by the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD) and Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies, the architectural concepts developed by Baker seemed particularly appropriate for an institution devoted to the study of economic and development problems.
Incidentally, in 1985, Baker along with Achutha Menon, Raj and T R Chandra Dutt founded the COSTFORD, an organisation that gives technological assistance to people in alternative building technology.
It has been highlighted in the book that, at the very beginning of their discussion regarding the vision of developing CDS, Raj told Baker that a library was pivotal for the Centre.
Additionally, he wanted it to be at the heart of the campus with easy access to all the buildings that house various disciplines and programmes. Baker pitched the idea of a wheel with its hub at the centre of the library.
According to the ICSSR, the CDS has developed and diversified its research in a good number of areas ranging from local government, migration, gender, and development to industry and trade.
In the words of Raj, “The CDS envisages joining the league of universally acclaimed centres of excellence in theoretically informed applied economic research, teaching and training in development studies by reorienting its research agenda, and strengthening and diversifying its teaching and training programmes to provide policy input and capacity-building in collaboration with other centres of excellence within and outside the country to address the development challenges in tune with the changing needs of the economy and society.”
It was in 1975 that the CDS undertook its first major study on ‘Poverty, Unemployment and Development Policy: A case study of selected issues with reference to Kerala’. Led by Raj, a group of faculty members undertook the study that was commissioned by the United Nations Committee on Development Planning.
Front page of the UN study
According to Professor KP Kannan, an academician, this study brought to the fore that Kerala, a provincial state in India, has been able to achieve within two decades of its formation in 1956, a critical minimum of human development and welfare to its people despite a very low per capita income by international standards. It then came to be known as Kerala Model of Development (KMD).
However, Kannan, in a working paper of the CDS in 2022 titled ‘Kerala ‘Model’ of Development Revisited – A Sixty-Year Assessment of Successes and Failures,’ noted that “although the CDS Study 1975 did not use such a term, many scholars especially those associated with the CDS don’t consider Kerala’s development experience as a ‘model’ although the term gets repeatedly used in both popular and academic discussions.”
He then stated, “At the most, one could say that Kerala’s specific developmental trajectory evolved out of its social and political processes over a long period of time starting from even before the formation of the state of Kerala.
He added: “I am therefore using the term KMD in the sense of Kerala’s development experience keeping in mind that this nickname has become part of the vocabulary in popular dialogue as well as scholarly discussions.”
Said to be inspired by the teachings and observations of philosopher and religious thinker Sree Narayana Guru, Raj was an economist known for his deep concern for the poor. He had stated that economics should help the poor.
He was of the observation that many people like him practised welfare economics without knowing that it was welfare economics because we were anxious that economics should help the poor.
In the economic sphere, it is considered that long before ‘inclusive growth’ became widely discussed, Raj passionately believed it to be the core of economic growth.
