Former Union minister and noted economist Yoginder Alagh passes away

Former Union minister and noted economist Yoginder Alagh passes away: Former Union minister and renowned economist Prof. Yoginder K. Alagh has passed away. He retired from the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research in Ahmedabad. Born in Chakwal, in present-day Pakistan, in 1939, Alagh studied at the University of Rajasthan and later got a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

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About the Prof Yoginder K Alagh:

• Alagh possibly represented the last of a group of economists who successfully bridged the worlds of academia and policymaking and who, in contrast to most, did not limit their research to a single economic area. During the 1980s, he headed the Agricultural Prices Commission (APC) as well the Bureau of Industrial Costs & Prices (BICP).
• As chairman of APC (now called the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Price), he set up its econometrics cell, which recommends minimum support prices for different crops and also published its reports with a view to encourage debate. At BICP, he initiated the first round of economic reforms that involved price decontrol in steel, cement and aluminium.
• Prior to that, in 1979, he served as the chair of a Planning Commission Task Force that established the first separate poverty thresholds for rural and urban areas based on calorie intake (less than 2,400 and 2,100, respectively).
• Alagh was executive vice-chairman of the Gujarat government’s Narmada Planning Group for the Sardar Sarovar multipurpose dam project in 1980-82, and a member of the Planning Commission between 1987 and 1990. During the United Front administration in 1996–1998, it resulted in his appointment as a Union Minister of State with independent responsibility for Power, Science & Technology, and Planning & Programme Implementation.

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