By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : More than hundred students of eminent economist K.N. Raj will gather at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) here to celebrate their guru's 84th birthday May 13.
Raj lives a retired life in the Kerala capital and is suffering from age-related ailments.
"As he is too old to travel to the centre, we will send him a birthday card signed by all his CDS students," said K.J. Joseph, a former student and faculty member of CDS.
"The two-day birthday celebrations from May 12-13 would include academic sessions and discussions," said Joseph.
Raj shot to fame soon after India's independence when he was invited by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in his drive to reorganise the states and lay the country's economic foundation. Raj took the lead and established the Planning Commission in 1950. For 20 years he steered Nehru's economic vision.
He was also vice-chancellor of Delhi University and a member of the prime minister's Economic Advisory Council for several years.
In 1971, C. Achutha Menon, then chief minister of Kerala, asked Raj to set up an academic research institution. Raj took up the challenge, and with Rs.3 million from the state government laid the foundation of CDS, often referred to as Raj's institute, though he never took up the post of CDS director.
In 2000, Raj was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in literature and education.
Some of Raj's well-known students at CDS are Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, veteran journalists Ram Manohar Reddy (editor, Economic and Political Weekly), Sanjaya Baru (press secretary to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh), social activist Mihir Shah and several top officials serving with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.