India Gadgil FDC

India FDC
Name: Dr. D.R. Gadgil
Issue date: 08 February 2008

Dr. D.R. Gadgil, one of India's Great economists, belonged to that rare and exclusive class of learned men who have been able to successfully combine an illustrious academic career with an equally active role in the real world. He gave birth to a vision of a dynamic rural society based on the co-operative movement and its power to transform society.

Born on 10th April 1901, Dr. D.R. Gadgil spent his childhood in Nagpur and received his B.A. & M.A. degrees in History and Economics from Cambridge University.

His intellectual interests were varied, and he wrote on, and worked in, the field of agricultural finance and rural cooperatives, regional planning and development issues, urban economics and economic history. His early research studies, based on economic surveys and investigations of surrounding areas and problems make him one of the pioneers of a tradition of rigorous empirical economic research in India.

As Chairman of the Bombay Provincial Cooperative Bank, Gadgil used the bank as a platform for initiating the crop loan scheme.