The School of Economics, SMVDU, has started its fortnightly webinar series and the inaugural talk was delivered by Dr. Alex M. Thomas of Azim Premji University on 18th January. Dr. Alex Thomas, alumnus of the University of Hyderabad and Sydney University, is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Azim Premji University. He delivered a talk on “Scarcity and Surplus Approaches in Economics” specially organized for the newcomers of School of Economics in the ‘Five Year Integrated Dual Degree Masters Programme’. Dr Kirtti Ranjan, the coordinator of the event, introduced the speaker and explained about the objective of the webinar.
Dr Meenakshi Gupta, I/c Head SOE, and other faculty members namely Dr Kakali Majumdar, Dr PabitraK Jena, Dr Arif Billah Dar, Dr Gopinathan P, Dr. D P Joshi etc. also participated in the webinar.
Dr. Alex, in his talk, pointed out though the scarcity approach which is also called the neoclassical approach, is dominant in the mainstream economics that is taught in the universities and colleges throughout the world, but the importance of surplus approach (classical political economy) cannot be ruled out. Therefore, for a holistic understanding of the economic system and effective policy formulation, there should be a well-mélange of both approaches. In particular, students should be exposed to both of these approaches. He also keenly addressed the queries posed by students and he was also impressed by their questions. At the end, Dr. D P Joshi thanked Dr. Thomas on behalf of the School of Economics for sparing his valuable time. Prof. Suparna Sharma, Dean, Faculty of Management, also thanked him for delivering such an inspiring talk to the students.