Swarajya Awards 2023: Prof K.V Subramanian Conferred Dr B.R Shenoy Award For Economics

Dr B R Shenoy Award for Economics 2023 has been awarded to Professor Krishnamurthy Subramanian, former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, for his pivotal role in shaping policies that helped Indian economy navigate through the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19.

Instituted in 2015 by Swarajya, Dr B R Shenoy Award, named in honour of a great Indian free market economist who challenged the state dirigisme, is presented to an individual who has consistently advocated the value of the open market, stood for a reduced role for government in enterprise and thereby made a significant contribution to advance human freedom.

The seventh edition of Swarajya Awards was presented today (September 15th during a special session at the Pondy Lit Fest 2023.

Previous winners of Dr B R Shenoy Award for Economics include Dr Arvind Panagariya, Dr V. Anantha Nageswaran, Dr N K Singh, Harsh Gupta, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, TCA Srinivasa Raghavan.

Award Citation Of Prof Krishnamurthy Subramanian

A stellar academic career was followed by his elevation as Chief Economic Advisor to Indian government. Subramanian left an indelible imprint on Indian economy policy apparatus by challenging shibboleths. Subramanian, who remains rooted in Indian values, is an extraordinary role model for students rooted in Dharma who would like to take up social sciences.

In 2018, after a gap of several years, an India-based research-active academic was appointed as the Chief Economic Advisor of India. It was Prof K V Subramanian. It is rare for people to excel in two disparate fields. Prof Subramanian has achieved this in his career by tremendous hard work, dedication, and self-assuredness that embodies the new, rising India that is a beacon of global hope. In many ways, the eternal optimist Prof Subramanian was destined to be at the helm as the Indian economy was readying itself to throw the shackles of its socialist, colonial past.

It is our great pleasure to give this award to Prof Subramanian for not only his academic excellence, of which we speak below, but also of serving a very important role of taking many liberal ideas that we believe in to the public.

His early research focussed on the effects of different incentive structures on innovation. For example, in a paper on banking deregulation and innovation, he and his co-authors showed how one must carefully think of the effects of financial sector deregulation on innovation. Subsequently, he moved on to studying various aspects of the Indian banking sector.

In a paper on bank clean-ups following the famous “asset quality review”, he and his co-authors show that bank clean-ups without adequate recapitalization exercises can be detrimental for the economy. He has also studied various other aspects of Indian banking like how board members of banks spend time between managing risks and compliance activities, or how a debt waiver affects the performance of loans subsequent to the waivers etc. Several of his paper are very influential and are widely cited.

Having excelled in his academic pursuits, Prof Subramanian was appointed the CEA in 2018, a very difficult period for the Indian economy. His challenges were further exacerbated when his predecessor, for reasons best left unsaid, denigrated the sanctity of India’s economic institutions after leaving his job.

At such a turbulent time, Prof Subramanian came with an extraordinary economic survey that was refreshingly practical in its outlook—rather than a theoretically focussed survey that most practitioners find hard to take to the real world—and also exposed fundamental flaws in arguments casting aspersion on India’s institutions.

Subsequently, his further economic surveys brought into mainstream important ideas like ethical wealth creation that Indian scriptures have talked about. He even opened many chapters of the survey with Sanskrit Subhashitas, a first. Most notably, a remarkable feature of the economic surveys he led was that they often reflected what would be followed up in the budget subsequently.

Beyond the economic surveys, he was played a pivotal role in navigating the Indian economy through the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19 where, unlike many western governments, India used a crisis to invest in capital intensive activities and reforms.

Finally, despite such extraordinary success, Prof Subramanian remains rooted in Indian values, is a keen reader of Sanskrit scriptures, and is a true liberal in his outlook. Therefore, he is an extraordinary role model for students rooted in Dharma who would like to take up social sciences. With great pleasure, we present this award to Prof K V Subramanian.