I was born at Klari, my ancestral village in Kerala, on April 14, 1955. According to the beliefs of the time, it was an auspicious moment, being the first day of the new year in Malabar. If any advantage came to me on account of this, I am unaware of it! I was educated at Moscow, Madras and Jawaharlal Nehru University, following which I trained as an economist at Oxford and Cambridge. I am an applied economist, having worked in the areas of macroeconomics and development. Though my work has been published in the professional journals, I am perhaps better known for my books ‘Pricing and Inflation in India’ (Oxford University Press India, 1991), ‘Economic Growth in India: History and Prospect’ (Oxford University Press India, 2010) and ‘India’s Economy from Nehru to Modi: A Brief History’ (Permanent Black, 2022). I have held appointments at Worcester College, Oxford University, the Indian Statistical Institute, the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode and Ashoka University. I have served as the Country Economist for Ukraine at the World Bank, as the Director of the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram and as a consultant to the International Labour Organisation, the Reserve Bank of India and United Nations Development Program. I have participated in the public discourse on India’s economy through my popular writing in the media for over three decades by now. I am Honorary Visiting Professor of the Centre for Development Studies and Visiting Professor of Krea University for the year 2024-25.