event100004

							                                                                                     xi

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
GENESIS & BRIEF HISTORY
         The Department of Economics was one of the first departments to be constituted
when the erstwhile Autonomous Post Graduate Centre of the University of Madras was
set up at Tiruchirappalli more than four decades ago. The Department of Economics was
established at the Centre at St.Joseph’s College in August 1963 with Prof. U. Ganapathi
as the Reader. In January 1966 Prof. S.C. Joseph joined as Head in the Department.
The Department offered M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. Programmes and inter-collegiate
lectures were given and attended by all the students of the post graduate colleges in
Tiruchirappalli. In August 1971, the Department was shifted to the Stadium Buildings at
Khajamalai and later in September 1976 to its own building at the Autonomous Post
Graduate Centre of the University of Madras, Khajamalai. In 1982 the Autonomous Post
Graduate Centre of the University of Madras at Tiruchirappalli came into existence as
Bharathidasan University and the Department of Economics got incorporated under it. The
Department was first headed by Prof. S. Neelakantan who was succeeded by
Prof. V.B. Athreya in September 1990, in turn succeeded by Prof. S. Lakshmi in
February 2008. Currently the Department is being headed by Prof. S. Iyyampillai since
September 2008.
PROGRAMMES OFFERED
        The Department offers M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. Programmes in Economics. Its
academic programmes are constantly updated, and are intended to provide the tools
necessary to understand the working of real world economies in terms of both theory
and policy. In addition to this the Department organizes Endowment Lectures and
collaborates with the Academic Staff College to offer Refresher Courses.
PROJECTS
       The Department has executed several projects over the years. Among the major
Department projects, mention may be made of the Social Forestry Project of the
Government of Tamil Nadu, carried out with funding from the Swedish International
Development Agency (SIDA). Besides Departmental projects, individual faculty members
have separately and jointly carried out several projects. These include Evaluation of
India’s population education programmes, Studies of vital rates in Tamil Nadu,
xii

Assessment of the role of women in Panchayati Raj, Rural drinking water studies,
Identifying hunger households to ensure food security, Trade liberalization and gender,
Survey of literacy and education in Karnataka, Studies of production relations in Indian
agriculture, Village surveys and resurveys, Industrial pollution, Micro enterprises and
women’s empowerment.
ACHIEVEMENTS
        The Department has produced 37 Ph.D.s in various specialized areas such as
Agricultural Economics, Industrial Economics, Development Economics, Labour
Economics, International Economics, Gender and Women Empowerment, Managerial
Economics, Environmental Economics, Regional Economics. In 2007, the Department was
sanctioned with the Special Assistance Programme of the UGC to carry forward its
research activities in various fields.
COLLABORATIONS & CONSULTANCIES
        The Department has had academic collaboration through the research work of its
faculty with several institutions in India and abroad. These include Lund University in
Sweden, Centre for Development Research in Denmark, Centre for Development Studies
in Thiruvananthapuram and Madras Institute of Development Studies in Chennai. The
Department’s faculties have participated in a number of international and national
conferences, seminars and workshops as paper presenters, discussants, invited speakers
and session chairpersons. The Department has, through its faculty, carried out several
consultancy and training assignments for various clients including the governments of Tamil
Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and India as well as international agencies such as DANIDA,
UNICEF, UNFPA, SIDA, CIDA, etc.
SERVICES
         The faculty of the Department have been associated with many public awareness
programmes and the programmes of the Government of India, viz., Mass Literacy
Campaigns, where the faculty have been associated with the conceptualization, design,
planning and implementation of the programme all over the country and coordinated total
literacy campaigns mainly in Tamil Nadu, and also occasionally in Karnataka, Bihar and
Andhra Pradesh. The Department arranges special lectures for the students of the
affiliated colleges and faculty have delivered several special lectures at the affiliated
colleges for the benefit of the students and the society.
                                                                                       xiii

                CENTRE FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
                      AND STUDIES (CYDS)

       Genesis and Brief History of the Centre : The CYDS was established in
out university in the month of February 2003 with a specific aim to supply necessary
academic inputs like knowledge, skills and team working and leadership quality to the
student community of the College and departments coming within the purview of
Bharathidasan University.

       The Centre’s main aim is to empower the students through appropriate training
and to improve their employability. This is done by, opening opportunities to the students
through organizing competitions (essay, elocution, poetry and quiz) and suggesting their
names to state and national level competitions, organizing workshops and training
programmes to give the students subject oriented skilled and general awareness,
organizing interaction programmes to enable the students to come out their shells and to
think and speak about their capabilities and future plans, and taking them to advanced
laboratories and libraries in order to motive them to go for higher studies, Funds,
Students join in the colleges and in the Departments under the jurisdiction of
Bharathidasan University, they become members of CYDS by remitting a fee of Rs. 10
per enrolment. The sponsorship from other agencies, are the University Grants
Commission (JRF/NET coaching), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (coaching
for UPSC Group a Examinations) and the Indian Society of Labour Economics
(48 th Annual Conference) have helped the CYDS to organize longer term programmes.

       In the last five years, CYDS has conducted more than 100 programmes. The
CYDS has tie ups with the co-operation of colleges of Bharathidasan University and
Tiruchirappalli District. Employment Office. The CYDS has invited experts such as,
Mr. John Hopewell, Amsterdom University, Netherlands to spoke on Social and Physical
Environment, Dr. M. Barincj, Asst. Prof. Centre for Martime Research (MARE) The
Netherlands, deliver lecture on space on challenging coast : social science perspectives
on coastal Dynamics, K. Chamundeeswari and K. Annappoorna from Law University of
Sheffield, UK on job opportunities, Guest Lecture on “Game Theory” by Ben
Hoppenstedt, University of Toulouse, France.