The prestigious Columbia University in the United States has established a chair in Indian Political Economy to be named after noted economist Jagdish Bhagwati.
The chair, endowed by multiple donors, is named after Bhagwati, one of India's leading authorities on international trade who is also a professor at the university.
Expressing his gratitude, Bhagwati said he was 'doubly flattered' as the university has named the chair after a serving professor. Generally, a chair is named after a professor has retired.
"Columbia has stellar faculty members in areas such as Sanskrit, and Indian history and religion. A position in modern Indian economics and political science bolsters Columbia's already-strong standing in Indian studies," he said.
Arvind Panagariya will be the first professor to fill the chair. Previously, he was professor of economics and co-director at the Centre for International Economics at the University of Maryland.
In addition to holding the Bhagwati chair, he will serve as a professor of economics at Columbia University.
Panagariya has served as the chief economist of the Asian Development Bank and also as an advisor to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
The campaign for the chair began in December 1992 by the then Indian Ambassador Abid Hussain at a dinner meeting at Columbia.
