President

Prof. T.R. Kundu

Professor T.R. Kundu did his master's in economics with distinction from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, in 1970. He has had an opportunity to work under the guidance of Prof. A.L. Nagar __ a leading econometrician of his times __ at Delhi School of Economics. He got University Grant Commission Faculty Improvement Fellowship in 1977 and did his PhD under the supervision of Prof. P. Chander __ former Director of Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre. He started his teaching career as a lecturer in economics at N.M. College Hansi in 1972. He joined the Department of Economics at Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, in 1985 and retired as a professor in 2007. During his stay at the University, he supervised 12 PhD thesis and completed three major research projects in 1997, 2015 and 2019. Prof Kundu holds several key administrative positions in Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra including Chairman, Department of Economics, founder Chairman, Department of Business Economics; Dean of Colleges; Director, Mahatma Gandhi All India Services Coaching Institute; and Chief Warden of the University Hostels. 

He has published more than three dozen research papers in journals of national and international repute, and his work has been widely cited. He has made research contributions in the theoretical and applied fields of economics. The broad areas of his interest include general equilibrium analysis, decentralized planning, and development economics. He has given a class of procedures for computing equilibrium prices in an economy approximated by the Generalized Leontief Model due to Samuelson. He has shown how such an economy can eventually reach equilibrium through the celebrated Walrasian tatonnment process. He has developed a general iterative planning procedure which allows for the decentralization of information and decision-making and possesses operational flexibility to work under alternative organizational structures of practical significance.

In development economics, he has reviewed the existing development paradigms under two broad approaches: the Neo-classical equilibrium analysis of development and the Neo-Marxian /disequilibrium analysis of development. In another paper, he examined the goal of development with a human face in its historical context. He proposed a workable strategy for simultaneously pursuing economic growth and basic needs.

He has used the exact index number approach to measure total factor productivity in the Indian organized manufacturing sector, assuming a flexible, functional form for producers’ production function and deriving an index number consistent with this functional form. He has also used the translog price possibility frontier to measure the extent of inter-mediate input substitution possibilities in Indian agriculture and explain the channels to realize the same in practice. In yet another important paper, he examined the impact of new dairy technology on the employment and income distribution of rural households in Haryana. Besides this, he has done three major research projects and supervised twelve PhD thesis on various aspects of the Indian and Haryana economies.

Prof. Kundu is a recipient of Punjab State Merit Scholarship (1965-66), University Research Scholarship, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi (1970-71), University Grant Commission Faculty Improvement Fellowship (1977-80) and Visiting Fellow, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre (1996). .He has attended more than sixty national and international conferences/ seminars at home and abroad. His contribution to decentralized planning was specifically acknowledged at the 26th Annual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society held in Mumbai in January, 1989. At the 35th Dairy Industry Conference held at Kolkata in 2006, he was presented the ‘Best Paper Award’ for his article with Dr. A.K. Chauhan, published in the Indian Journal of Dairy Sciences, 2005. 

He has been the editor of the Journal of Haryana studies at Kurukshetra University and a member of several professional bodies, including The Indian Econometric Society, The Indian Economic Association, and the Haryana Economic Association. He had also been a visiting fellow at the M.D. University Rohtak in 1992 and at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre in 1996.

Prof.   Kundu was awarded UGC Emeritus Fellowship in 2013 and then ICSSR Senior Fellowship in 2016. His research work during his tenure as Senior Fellow was adjudged ‘outstanding’ by the ICSSR penal of experts. He is presently a Member ICSSR Collegium of Eminent Social Scientists.