ABOUT

The Department of Economics & Politics began its journey as a separate department in 1953 under the Siksha-Bhavana (Institute of Science). Later it came under the Vidya Bhavana (Institute of Social Sciences) and the first batch of postgraduate students came out in 1958 and the first PhD was awarded in 1969. Currently the Department is placed in the building ‘Vidya-Bhavana Angana’. The department offers UG, PG, M Phil and PhD courses, under the guidance of eminent professors. From the very outset, the department focused on both theoretical and empirical research in the area of agriculture and rural development. The faculty of the department distinguished themselves in research on areas including land-tenure, farm-management, agrarian-productivity and rural-poverty. Much of this research was carried out in collaboration with the well-known Indian and international economists, as well as with other departments/ centers of Visva-Bharati (like the Agro-Economic Research Centre and A.K.D. Centre of Planning and Development , Santiniketan) and has won recognition in India and abroad.

Many of the faculty members and research scholars are engaged in research work in such varied fields as: Rural Development, Macroeconomics, international trade, industrial organization, growth economics, Political Economy, Environment-resource economics, Public Economics & Policies economics of corruption, issues in economic thought, impact of globalization on Indian agriculture, fisheries, small scale industry, Panchayati Raj System, micro-credit, insurance, development induced displacement and so on. Faculty members have also obtained fellowships offered by government and non-government agencies for undertaking research in foreign universities and institutions. They have also taught and worked in well-known national and international institutions and published widely in reputed journals in India and abroad. They have attended various national and international conferences, workshops and faculty developments programmes. Students who have passed out of the Department are placed in different prestigious national and international institutions. In addition to obtaining teaching and research positions in universities, colleges and research institutes in India and abroad, they have been offered positions in reputed economic and financial institutions like the RBI, NABARD etc.

The UGC awarded the Department financial assistance at the level of DRS- I for five years from 1.4.2009 to 31.03.2014 under the Special Assistance Programme (SAP). The thrust area of UGC (DRS-I) was Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development. The department completed DRS-I with grand success and as a result the UGC has sanctioned more than one crore rupees for DRS-II. Eminent scholars from India and abroad have visited the department under these programmes. The department arranged one international and four national seminar during SAP (DRS-I). Under this programme, the Department has procured modern equipment which are expected to generate impetus for upgrading the standard of teaching and research. The SAP (DRS-I) had been able to extend financial and infrastructural assistance to faculty members, research scholars and student to carry out new research in thrust area. As an outcome of this assistance SAP (DRS-I) has been able to publish several volumes and a series of Working Papers. New faculty members who have joined the department have added to this impetus to a great extent. As it has already been mentioned, given the success of DRS–I, the department was sanctioned more than 1 crore rupees under DRS – II which sucessfully ran from April 2015 to March 2020. Our SAP programme has been very vibrant and as a result, various events took place all through last 5 years. Several luminaries in the field of Economics visited us in different programmes like the Research Methodology Workshop, International and national Seminars and conferences, Research Scholars’ Workshop and Econ-Visva, a very unique and one of its kind programme for the Masters’ students of Social sciences in India. The Department has also adopted various new plans of diversifying academic activities. It has vision to take up action research as well as interdisciplinary research in collaboration of other Visva-Bharati departments as well as institutions outside the Visva-Bharati.