Abstract:
Prof Amartya Sen has been an ardent advocate of development economics; his concern has been the welfare of the world’s poorest people. This concern arose from witnessing famine in the present-day Bangladesh, part of India prior to 1947, where he was born. Under the realm of Sen’s welfare economics his contributions range from axiomatic theory of social choice, construction of welfare and poverty indexes, to empirical studies of famine. Sen also treated such problems as majority rule, individual rights, and the availability of information about individual welfare. He made enormous contributions to the central themes of economics and fashioned new concepts to the theory of growth and welfare. Above all he gave ethical underpinnings to mainstream economics, a domain so far regarded as the prerogative of Philosophy. Sen’s works opened up new and important fields of study. According to him as far as India is concerned there is no single formula for economic development; but spread of basic education, healthcare, land reforms, social security and gender equality have to be brought into focus. Sen is of the view that the growth in India’s population is not an impediment to economic development. Poor interaction with trade and commerce, and continuous neglect of women were the major obstacles in the way of India’s all round development.
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