President Pranab Mukherjee’s gesture of dedicating the new economics institution modelled on the London School of Economics to B R Ambedkar in Bengaluru on April 14 was a fitting tribute.
Next year marks the centenary of Ambedkar’s PhD in economics, which focused on productivity, skill training and the need to shift people from agriculture to industry, as a strategy to overcome poverty. He was an economist first, who flowered to become a legal luminary and shaped the Constitution. It is worth reflecting on some of his thoughts on Hinduism, the caste system and its perversions.
“The first and foremost thing
