May his soul rest in peace.....

I deeply regret to report the passing away on 19th September 2011 in New York of Shri Anand Chandavarkar. He unarguably was the foremost exponent of the Indian economic scene and an acknowledged authority on John Maynard Keynes. He is noted for his grace in style, felicity of expression and profundity in knowledge. His credentials are impeccable. He is a graduate from the University of Bombay and the London School of Economics, where he was a student of Karl Popper, Michael Oakshott, two political philosophers of world repute. Greater distinction is that he was the disciple of three Nobel Laureates in Economics, Friedrich Hayek, James Meade and Ronald Coase. One cannot have more distinguished teachers. The teachers could not have a more distinguished disciple.  Professionally he served in RBI, IMF,OECD and World Bank; Economic Adviser, Bank of Libya; Consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Paris), the World Bank, and the Presidential Commission on Finance and Banking, Sri Lanka.  He was the author of "Keynes and India" "Central Banking in Developing Countries . His latest book was "The Unexplored Keynes and other essays". He has published widely in leading academic and professional journals, including The Economic Journal, The Oxford Economic Papers, The Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Economic and Political Weekly.  He made a significant contribution to The Cambridge Economic History of India.  He was aninvited speaker at the Tenth Keynes Seminar at the University of Kent,Canterbury, England (1991) and the One Hundredth Annual Meeting of the AmericanPhilosophical Association, (Eastern Division), Washington D.C., 2003. He is a rare economist, a profound scholar who writes with transparency and eloquence, and he has many interesting things to say. His writings on Keynes are particularly fascinating and attracted a huge readership. His deep knowledge of history of economics and economic analysis reflect the long and useful life he led as a teacher and researcher in academic and international organizations. Shining through his writing is his compassion and humanity. Anand Chandavarkar displays his customary ability to "excite the judgement briefly rather than to inform it tediously". He is India's foremost and finest scholar of Keynes. His book, “Keynes and India” remains aclassic. He had worked in the Department of Research and Statistics of RBI for a number of years and some of us were privileged to have worked under him. My wife and I had the privilege of visiting him in Washington and this "Gentle Colossus" came down to the ground floor to see us off.Scholarship combined with utmost courtesy one comes across rarely. We mourn the loss of a great scholar, a perfect gentleman and a raconteur par excellence. He was 88 years old at the time of his death.  

As reported by P.P.Ramachandran (via e-mail)