) following which he went on a prestigious two - year assignment to the development research centre of the world bank. almost all of his later active career, from 1978 on, was in the delhi school of economics where he served with great distinction, first as a professor, then as head of the department of economics and finally as the director of the school. from 2000 until his retirement in 2004, professor tendulkar served as the executive director of the centre for development economics in the delhi school. professor tendulkar ’ s concern for data quality led him to a life - long involvement with the process of generation of economic data through a succession of public assignments. he served on numerous working groups for the design and conduct of the national sample surveys, was the chairman of the governing council of the national sample survey organisation ( nsso ), chairman of the national accounts advisory committee and chairman of the national statistical commission. quite understandably, prof. tendulkar ’ s commitment to empirical research and his sensitivity to poverty led him to very extensive and influential work on estimation of poverty in india. he was a member of the lakdawala committee for estimation of poverty 1993 which, among other things, recommended state specific consumption baskets for estimation of poverty. the more recent tendulkar committee report, which was the subject matter of a vigorous bis central bankers ’ speeches national debate, revisited these norms and improved on them by recommending bringing estimation of rural poverty in line with that of urban poverty. although i had long heard of prof. tendulkar from his students and colleagues who spoke very highly of him, i did not have the good future of meeting him until late in my career when he was a member of the prime minister ’ s economic advisory council and i was the secretary to the council. later, he became the chairman of the council in which position he advised the prime minister on important policy issues. my association with prof. tendulkar continued as i moved to the reserve bank in 2008. prof. tendulkar was a director on the central board and chairman of the eastern region local board of the reserve bank during 2006 – 11. the reserve bank deeply values this association with him and has benefitted immensely from his wise counsel and mature guidance. like thousands of his students, colleagues and well wishers, we in the reserve bank were deeply saddened by his unexpected demise in june 2011. we remember him as an outstanding economist distinguished by his intellectual integrity, and more importantly, as a wonderful human being

duvvuri subbarao : understanding inequality and poverty in india welcome remarks by dr duvvuri subbarao, governor of the reserve bank of india, at the first prof tendulkar memorial oration, at the college of agricultural banking ( cab ), pune, 19 january 2013. * * * on behalf of the reserve bank of india, i am delighted to welcome prof. abhijit banerjee, who will shortly be delivering the first professor tendulkar memorial oration. i also have great pleasure in acknowledging the presence here of smt. sunetra tendulkar and other family members of late prof. tendulkar. your presence here means a lot to us. a hearty welcome also to all the distinguished invitees to this lecture. prof. s. d. tendulkar prof. suresh tendulkar was, by all accounts, one of the pre - eminent economists of india who was deeply respected both in the academia and the public policy space. his scholarship straddled a wide range of sub - disciplines in economics but his seminal work on the measurement and analysis of living standards in india, with focus on inequality and poverty, will remain his enduring legacy to public policy formulation. this topic which dominated his academic work, and the passion with which he pursued it say a lot about two essential characteristics that defined prof. tendulkar. the first was his abiding sensitivity to poverty and his belief that the design and implementation of anti - poverty programmes should be informed by a deeper understanding of the nature of poverty and the sociology of the poor. the second was his dedication to empiricism. not for him broad generalizations based on anecdotal evidence. he believed that the only route to knowledge and wisdom is data, and that public policy should be based on research findings that are drawn from diligent analysis of sound data. both these characteristics – deep sensitivity to poverty and a commitment to data based research to understand poverty – have in a way determined prof. tendulkar ’ s academic and career graph. his academic track record will overawe any student of economics. after a masters degree in economic statistics from the delhi school of economics in 1962 where he finished at the top of his class, prof. tendulkar got a doctorate from harvard university with big names like professors hendrik houthakker and hollis chenery as his thesis advisers. he returned to india to join the indian statistical institute ( isi