Chelliah wins FE Economics Award

MUMBAI, December 17: Raja Jesudoss Chelliah, 75, the man behind Manmohan Singh's tax reforms and currently chairman of the National Institu...

MUMBAI, December 17: Raja Jesudoss Chelliah, 75, the man behind Manmohan Singh’s tax reforms and currently chairman of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), has been selected for The Financial Express Award for Economics, 1997. The award will be presented to Chelliah during the forthcoming annual meeting of the Indian Economic Association in Hyderabad from December 27-29.

The award committee, comprising A M Khusro, Consulting Editor of The Financial Express, S L Rao, former director-general of the National Council for Aplied Economic Research (NCAER), and R Jagannathan, Executive Editor of The Financial Express, was unanimous in its choice of Chelliah as this year’s recipient of the award.

The award, which carries a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and a citation, was won in the past by several eminent economists, including Manmohan Singh, K N Raj, C H Hanumantha Rao and P R Brahmananda, among others. The award is given to economists who have contributed substantially to teaching economics, building institutions and who have been able to influence policy.

Chelliah meets all these criteria in ample measure. He has taught economics at the Madras Christian College, the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, and Osmania University, Hyderabad. As founder-director of the NIPFP, Chelliah was instrumental in building up the institute as a full-fledged institution in fiscal matters. And as chairman of the Tax Reforms Committee between 1991-93, his influence on Indian economic policy after liberalisation has been phenomenal.

Chelliah, who turned 75 just last week on December 12, studied economics at the University of Madras. After a five-year stint as lecturer at the Madras Christian College, he was selected as a Fulbright scholar in 1956 and proceeded to the U S. He obtained his PhD in economics from Pittsburgh University, USA.

On his return from the US, he worked as senior economist at the NCAER (1958-61). Chelliah spent most of the sixties teaching at Jaipur and Hyderabad, but in 1969 he was invited to join the staff of the IMF in the fiscal affairs department as its chief. He held this post for six years, after which he retruned to India. In 1976, he became the founder director of the NIPFP — a post he held for the next 10 years.

Chelliah’s impact in the policymaking arena has been considerable since the seventies. Starting with membership of the Indirect Taxes Enquiry Committee in 1976 (the Jha Committee), his views have been consistently heard in all policy areas relating to public finance and taxation.

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His most decisive role, of course, came when Manmohan Singh appointed him chairman of the Tax Reforms Committee in 1991. His report has formed the basis for the country’s march towards lower import protection and globalisation.

In the opinion of the award committee, Raja Chelliah qualifies eminently for The Financial Express Award for Economics for 1997.