Professor A. Vaidyanathan, past President of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (1995-2003) died in Coimbatore on June 10, 2020. He was also former member of the Planning Commission and chaired the Government of India’s Taskforce for reviving rural cooperative credit. He was also professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies and Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.
Professor Vaidyanathan obtained his PhD in Economics from Cornell University, USA and has worked for the UN FAO and the World Bank, Washington, D.C. He has also worked at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi. He made valuable contributions to planning and agricultural policy in India and played a major role in improving the statistical and data base in India.His research and policy advice broadly focused on various aspects of Indian Economy, in particular, agriculture, irrigation, water management, employment, poverty and more importantly, quality of data.He was particularly instrumental in digitisation of the Cost of Cultivation Survey Data for a few states and the outcome of this effort is available in the form of a Report. In his death, the country has lost a great visionary who is known for his sharp intellectual academic rigour.