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Portrait of B. R. Shenoy

classical liberal

B. R. Shenoy

Bellikoth Raghunath Shenoy

1905–1978

Also known as: Bellikoth R. Shenoy

Professor Bellikoth Ragunath Shenoy (1905–1978) was a classical liberal economist. Born on June 3, 1905, near Mangalore, Karnataka, he was educated at the Benares Hindu University (where he secured a first-class first at the MA Economics Exam in 1929) and later at the London School of Economics (LSE). As a student, he actively participated in the freedom struggle and was jailed at Nagpur. At LSE, he was inspired by the ideas of Professor Friedrich Hayek who later won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

During his LSE stint, two of his papers, “An Equation for the Price Level of New Investment Goods” (1931) and “Interdependence of Price Levels” (1933) appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics which established him as an upcoming monetary economist. He was perhaps the first Indian economist to have a paper published in a leading scholarly journal.

After returning to India, Shenoy taught at Wadia College (Pune), Gujarat College (Ahmedabad) and University of Ceylon. He was associated with various Government Bodies of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) including the Commission on Currency and the Department of Commerce. In 1942 he was appointed the Principal of L D Arts College, Ahmedabad. He would join the Reserve Bank of India in 1945. During his RBI days, he was the Far Eastern Representative of the IMF (1948) and an Alternate Executive Director of IMF as well as of the World Bank (1951-53).

In 1954, Shenoy joined Gujarat University as the first Director of its School of Social Sciences, a position which he retained till 1968. During this period he made substantial contributions to Indian Economic Policy debates, most notably his “Note of Dissent to the Second Five Year Plan” and Madras University Lectures entitled “Problems of Indian Economic Development.”

His notable contributions to various policy issues like PL480 food imports, deficit financing, inflation, and economic development were marked by technical competence and analytical ability. After leaving Gujarat University in 1968, he founded the “Economic Research Centre” in Delhi and tirelessly espoused the cause of liberalism in India till he passed away on 8th February 1978.

He was President of the Indian Economic Association in 1957, Visiting Professor at his alma mater, LSE in 1966 and a member of the internationally prestigious Mont Pelerin Society.

His publications include “Ceylon Currency and Banking” (1941), “The Sterling Assets of the Reserve Bank of India” (1953), “Problems of Indian Economic Development” (1956), and “PL480 and India’s Food Problem” (1974) apart from various articles in scholarly journals, both Indian and international. A collection of his writings “Planned Progress or Planned Chaos” edited by Professors Mahesh Bhatt and S. B. Mehta was published in 1996.

PL480 and India’s Food Problem (1974).

Planned Progress or Planned Chaos? (East West Books, 1996).

The Post-War Depression: The Way Out (Kitabistan, 1944).

Ceylon Currency and Banking (Longman, Green and Company Limited, 1941).

The Sterling Assets of the Reserve Bank of India (Indian Council of World Affairs, 1946).

The Indian Economic Scene: Some Aspects (1957).

Indian Economic Crisis: A Program for Reform (Economics Research Centre, 1968).

Problems of Indian Economic Development (University of Madras Press, 1958).

Indian Planning and Economic Development (Asia Publishing House, 1963).

Fifteen Years of Indian Planning (1966)

Indian Economic Policy (Humanities Press, 1968).

Food Crisis in India: Causes and Cure (1974)

Economic Growth with Social Justice (Forum of Free Enterprise, 1980).

The Bombay Plan, A Review of Its Financial Provisions (Karnatak Pub House, 1944).

Indian Planning and The Common Man (Forum of Free Enterprise, 1962).

Report on the Economic Survey of Kurunegala District (Ceylon Government Press, 1940).

Economic Policy Resolution of AICC at Bangalore and Indian Economic and Social Progress (Economic Research Center).

PL480 and Indias Food Problem (1974)

Planned Progress or Planned Chaos? (East West Books, 1996)

The Post-War Depression: The Way Out (Kitabistan, 1944)

Ceylon, Currency and Banking (1941)

The Sterling Assets of the Reserve Bank of India (1953)

Problems of Indian Economic Development (1956)

The Indian Economic Scene: Some Aspects (1957)

Economic Prophecies

Other Writings

A Note of Dissent on the Memorandum of the Panel of Economists

Economic Situation and Trends in Ceylon – A Programme of Reform

Theoretical Vision, edited by R K Amin & Parth J Shah (Centre for Civil Society, 2004)

Liberalism and Less Developed Countries: Essay in Memory of Professor Bellikoth Raghunath Shenoy (Gujarat University, 1982)

Some Basic Economic Ideas of Prof. B R Shenoy (Economic Research Center, 1998)

An Equation for the Price Level of New Investment Goods (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1931)

Interdependence of Price Levels (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1933)

Correspondences

Shenoy-Hayek Correspondences (Set I, Hoover Institution Archives)

Shenoy-Hayek Correspondences (Set II, Hoover Institution Archives)

Published On

The Indian Libertarian Volume : 5 ;Issue: 15

1  October 1957

The Indian Libertarian Volume : 5 ; Issue: 18

1  December 1957

How B. R. Shenoy is discussed in this archive

Authored 17 works in the archive.

Subject of 1 profile piece — including B.R. Shenoy : India's First Neoliberal? .

Referenced in 9 other works — including BLACK MONEY MENACE IN INDIA , Efficient Planning in a Democratic Society , and Deficit Financing, Inflation and Price Control .

In BLACK MONEY MENACE IN INDIA : The booklet preface cites B.

In Deficit Financing, Inflation and Price Control : Jayaraman invokes B.

In Approach to the Fourth Five-Year Plan : Shenoy is cited alongside Shroff and Palkhivala as one of the Forum intellectuals whose earlier warnings against Soviet-style planning are presented as validated by fifteen years of planning failure.

In Efficient Planning in a Democratic Society : Mehta singles out Shenoy as the only eminent Indian economist consistently defending the price mechanism against the planning consensus, making him the sole domestic intellectual ally for Mehta's own liberal argument.

In FROM THE INDUSTRIAL AGE TO THE INFORMATION AGE : Belt's essay was published under the sponsorship of the Economics Research Centre founded by Prof.

By B. R. Shenoy (17)

Primary works (12)

Excerpts (4)

In ThePrint (1)

About B. R. Shenoy (3)

Interviews (2)

Profile pieces (1)

  • B.R. Shenoy : India's First Neoliberal?
    • "Shunned by Indian planners and economists for his radical views on India's development trajectory, Shenoy found a home among the small and closely knit free-market advocacy group in India and the vigorous transnational network of neoliberal intellectuals active mostly in the West" — establishes his marginalisation at home and his integration into the global neoliberal network
    • "It was at LSE that Shenoy came in contact with Friedrich Hayek who was there to deliver lectures in the wake of the Great Depression of 1929" — pinpoints the intellectual encounter that shaped his free-market orientation

Mentioned in (12)

Primary works (8)

  • Giving is Receiving · 2018
  • Public Sector Wastage - Issues and Challenges · 2014
  • BLACK MONEY MENACE IN INDIA · 2009
    • "citing earlier booklets by B. R. Shenoy, B. P. Adarkar, Vadilal Dagli, D. R. Pendse and H. P. Ranina" — preface situating Pai's address in the Forum's long tradition of writing on black money
    • "closes with a 1962 warning from B. R. Shenoy that the only real remedy is to abandon the policies of statism" — closing of Pai's address; Shenoy's prescription is the normative conclusion of the whole argument
  • Economic Reforms and the Relevance of Prof. B. R. Shenoy · 2007
  • Deficit Financing, Inflation and Price Control · 1973
    • "The closing pages invoke Professor B. R. Shenoy's diagnosis of "perverse income shifts" and former RBI Governor L. K. Jha's warning that deficit financing must be a supplement to, not a substitute for, resources mobilisation" — Shenoy's diagnosis provides the theoretical framework for Jayaraman's anti-inflation argument
  • Approach to the Fourth Five-Year Plan · 1968
    • "warnings earlier issued by A. D. Shroff, Murarji J. Vaidya, N. A. Palkhivala, Prof. P. T. Bauer and Prof. B. R. Shenoy" — FFE introduction; Shenoy's forecasts are grouped with the other Forum economists whose dissent the current crisis vindicates
  • Efficient Planning in a Democratic Society · 1965
    • "he singles out Prof. B. R. Shenoy as the lone eminent Indian economist arguing this line, with most Indian planners and businessmen having capitulated to "the magic word" of Planning." — Shenoy named as the sole Indian economist dissenting from the planning orthodoxy Mehta critiques
    • "including Prof. M. L. Dantwala's more equivocal acceptance." — Dantwala's contrast used to define the space where Shenoy's dissent stands alone
  • FROM THE INDUSTRIAL AGE TO THE INFORMATION AGE · n.d.
    • "the Economics Research Centre founded by the late Prof. B. R. Shenoy" — publication context linking Belt's regulatory critique of the SEC to Shenoy's legacy as the institutional patron of the Forum's Economics Research Centre

Opinion pieces (2)

Excerpts (2)

  • The Gold Problem in India
    • "Prof. B. R. Shenoy, Director of the School of Social Sciences, Gujarat University, an authority on the gold problem" — Shenoy is introduced as the academic voice among the booklet's four co-authors
  • Rajaji- Man with a Mission
    • "N G Ranga, B R Shenoy, Piloo Mody, Khasa Subba Rau and A D Shroff during the era of socialist command" — Shenoy named among the liberal dissenters profiled in the book

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