Krishna Bharadwaj was an Indian Neo-Ricardian economist mainly known for her contributions to the economic development theory and the revival of the ideas of classical economics. She believed that economic theory should be based on concepts which can be observed and be amenable to measurement in reality.
Early life and education
Bharadwaj was born on 21 August 1935 in Karwar, Karnataka, into a Konkani Saraswat Brahmin family. She was the youngest of the six children of M. S. Chandravarkar, a teacher in a local college, and his wife Shantabai. The family shifted to Belgaum in 1939, and Bhardwaj was schooled in that city. She learnt Hindustani classical music and won many local competitions by the age of fifteen. In 1952, after her father's death, the family moved to Mumbai, where Bharadwaj attended Ruia college and graduated with a first class degree in economics. She then took a master's degree and then completed a Ph.D in Transport Economics in 1960. Her critical orientation towards the Economic Theory began with her involvement in development theory as a doctoral student.
Career
In 1960, Piero Sraffa's Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities was published. Bharadwaj was asked by the then editor Sachin Chaudhuri of Economic Weekly to review the book. She solved this task brilliantly, which then formed the prelude to her further scientific work. In 1961, Bharadwaj joined the Center for International Studies to work on problems of planning and development with critical perceptions. In 1967, she went to Cambridge as a visiting fellow and came under the influence of Piero Sraffa and going on to become one of his closest disciples. Bharadwaj promoted the teaching of different economic approaches in Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University, such as classical, Marxian, Keynesian as well as Walrasian. She held the Chair of Economics at the university. She edited the collected papers of Marxist economistPierro Sraffa at the University of Cambridge, England. She contributed to numerous journals and forums and is well known as a leading light among development economists.
Personal life
The activist and trade unionist, Sudha Bharadwaj, is her daughter.
