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Padma Desai (October 12, 1931 – April 29, 2023) was an Indian-American development economist who was the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of comparative economic systems and director of the Center for Transition Economies at Columbia University. Known for her scholarship on Soviet and Indian industrial policy, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2009.
Desai completed her B.A. (Economics) in 1951 from the University of Mumbai, followed by an M.A. (Economics) also from the same university in 1953. Thereafter, she completed her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1960. At Harvard University, she was influenced by economists Alexander Gerschenkron and Robert Solow. She was a fellow of the American Association of University Women while pursuing her Ph.D. at Harvard.
Desai's 1968 book India: Planning for Industrialization, which was co-written with her future husband and economist Jagdish Bhagwati was an influential critique of India's industrial planning system. The work influenced subsequent economic liberalisation in India. The book spoke against the Licence Raj and the Planned economy that were prevalent in India at the time.
Desai joined Columbia University as a professor of economics in 1980. In November 1992, she became Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems at Columbia University and went on to become the director of the Center for Transition Economies at the university.
Desai's research included studying the Soviet economy, specifically studying the command economies and the misallocation of resources therein. She built on the studies of economists Alexander Gerschenkron and Robert Solow, studying the decelerating growth rates in the Soviet economies, separating the contributions from technology led productivity gains and capital led growth. In her book Perestroika in Progress (1989) she studied the misallocation of resources in command economies and the resulting damages and losses across sectors. She continued to study the Russian economy after the Soviet dissolution and trained US policymakers and continued to speak on Russian economic policies. She was the U.S. Treasury's advisor to the Russian Finance Ministry in the summer of 1995.
Desai was president of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies in 2001. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor, by the Government of India in 2009.
Desai published her memoir, Breaking Out: An Indian Woman's American Journey in 2012. The book spoke about her journey from India to America, breaking out of an emotionally abusive marriage, and establishing herself as an economist studying many shacked economies.
Desai died on April 29, 2023, at age 91.
Personal life
Desai was married to Jagdish Bhagwati, also an Indian-American economist and professor of economics and law at Columbia University; the couple had one daughter. She first befriended him in 1956. They were both faculty members at the Delhi School of Economics in the 1960s. The two attempted to get married but restrictive divorce laws in India prevented Desai from divorcing her first husband until 1969 when she converted to Christianity (religious conversion was grounds for divorce in India). Bhagwati and Desai married in Mexico.
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Categories: 1931 Births, 2023 Deaths, 20th-century American Women Writers, 20th-century Indian Economists, 20th-century Indian Women Scientists, 20th-century Indian Women Writers, 20th-century Indian Writers, 21st-century American Women Writers, 21st-century Indian Economists, 21st-century Indian Women Scientists, 21st-century Indian Women Writers, 21st-century Indian Writers, Academic Staff Of Delhi University, American Economists, American Memoirists, American People Of Gujarati Descent, American Women Economists, American Women Memoirists, Columbia University Faculty, Educators From Gujarat, Harvard Graduate School Of Arts And Sciences Alumni, Indian Development Economists, Indian Emigrants To The United States, Indian Women Economists, People From Surat, Recipients Of The Padma Bhushan In Literature & Education, Russian Studies Scholars, Scientists From Gujarat, University Of Mumbai Alumni, Women Educators From Gujarat, Women Scientists From Gujarat
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