Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-268) and index.

As the Indian economy goes through one of its most prosperous yet turbulent times, it seems appropriate to revisit its earliest scholars and advisors. Colonial India produced several professional economists of repute, researching on its economic conditions and development needs.
Their contributions have largely been ignored though they had anticipated, in significant ways, recent debates in development economics.

This volume showcases these contributions to development economics, well before the subject became a part of mainstream economics in the developed world. It reproduces the works of major Indian economists of the early twentieth century, each contexualized in terms of the contemporary relevance.

These early Indian economists covered a range of issues-monetary and fiscal policy, protection, employment and labour market conditions, credit systems, industry, rural economy, women in development, macroeconomic policy, environmental economics, and economic dimensions of political problems-with significance for research, teaching, and public policy. Presented in chronological order to highlight the direction in which Indian economic thinking was progressing at the time, the contributions provide readers with a rare insight into longstanding issues in the economy.