Development economist Professor V.K. Natraj passes away in Mysuru

A leading academician specialising in Development Economics, Prof. Natraj’s career spanned over three decades in the University of Mysore. He was also its registrar before his appointment as the Director of MIDS, Chennai, from 2000 to 2005.

Prof. V.K. Natraj (85), a retired professor and former Director of Institute of Development Studies, University of Mysore, and former Director, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai, passed away at a private hospital in Mysuru on December 9 after a brief illness.

A leading academician specialising in Development Economics, Prof. Natraj’s career spanned over three decades in the University of Mysore. He was also its registrar before his appointment as the Director of MIDS, Chennai, from 2000 to 2005.

After studies in the University of Mysore, Prof. Natraj obtained his masters from Oxford and joined the IDS in Mysuru in 1972, and was a professor of Development Studies.

His areas of interest spanned panchayati raj institutions and decentralisation. He was a Visiting Fellow at the IDS, University of Sussex, and headed a research study initiated by it on panchayats in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal. He was a member of the Expert Committee on Panchayat Raj, Government of Karnataka, and had authored many papers on decentralisation.

As a social activist, he encouraged dialogue between farmers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on the Cauvery river issue.

His close associates said the body will be placed in his residence at Jayalakshmipuram till December 10 morning to enable his relatives, friends and well-wishers to pay their last respects.