Launched in 1973, the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP) at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is completing its 50th year. To celebrate 50 years of this remarkable journey, the Centre is organizing an international conference at JNU. 

The Centre came into being, under the able leadership of an institution builder par excellence —the Late Prof Krishna Bharadwaj, as a centre with six faculty members with a vision to create a niche for itself by linking economic theory with historical experience and empirical observation, all sitting in harmony with and learning from each other. Since then, it has come a long way in becoming one of the premier economic departments in the country (as well as internationally). It is in this spirit of an intersection between theory and empirics that the theme of this conference has been decided as Economic Theory and Policy in India.