The Delhi School of Economics began in 1949 when a group of visionaries led by Professor V.K.R.V. Rao and supported by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, launched a project to create a centre for advanced studies in the social sciences. The School comprises the departments of economics, geography and sociology. The Department of Economics, recognized as a Centre for Advanced Study by the University Grants Commission, counts numerous outstanding individuals in its list of former faculty. They include Pranab Bardhan, Kaushik Basu, Jagdish Bhagwati, Sukhamoy Chakravarty, Bhaskar Dutta, Raj Krishna, A.L. Nagar, Prasanta Pattanaik, K.N. Raj, Amartya Sen (Nobel Laureate, 1998) and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to name just a few. Alumni of the department occupy important positions in Indian and foreign universities, research institutes, government bodies, international agencies, the media and the corporate sector.

The department continues to produce high quality academic research: in the last couple of years, faculty had publications in many ranking journals. We are currently ranked the highest in India (out of more than 70 institutions) by RePEc (Research Papers in Economics), a global electronic archive of working papers and publications in Economics and Finance (see http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.india.html). The department has also been associated with several important journals over the years. At present, it publishes the Indian Economic Review. Faculty members also continue to influence national debates and policy, through writings in popular journals, production of two well-regarded economic forecasts, and memberships of national committees.