By Koushik Hati Kolkata: The Governor of West Bengal had released a book on economics authored by the principal of a Jesuit college in the City of Joy. The Governor, M.K. Narayanan released the book, Disinvestment in India - Trends, Problems and Prospects, by Jesuit Father Felix Raj on Sept. 11, at the St Xavier’s College auditorium.
Fr Felix is the principal of Jesuit-run St Xavier’s College in Kolkata, and teacher of economics in the college. Calling the book “an extremely well conceived and a technically near perfect treatise”, the Governor suggested, “despite not being an easy read, the book should be made an essential read for under-graduate and post-graduate students of economics”.
He handed over the first copy of the book to Fr Jeyaraj Vellusamy, Provincial of Calcutta Jesuit Province. In a lighter vein, the governor added : “I thought Principals never wrote books; they made students read them”. He described Father Felix Raj as a thorough acade-mician and an able administrator”, and hoped the Jesuit priest’s contri-bution will help the nation and the policy makers.
The book is based on Fr Felix’s research on disinvestment in public sector enterprises in India. “Disinvestment has been a burning issue in our country over the past three decades,” said Father Felix. “As an economist, I was very interested in the process.” The book takes into account the author’s research over three years and looks at the trends, problems and prospects of the divestment process in India over the last three decades.
In his introductory chapter, Father Felix redefines development in terms of liberalization, and goes a step forward from Amartya Sen’s definition of development as freedom. For him “development is a continuous process of creation, a never ending process, a permanent cultural revolution, in other words, a praxis”.
He described how he has completed the study by undertaking 15 Public sector enterprises those went for strategic partners and having a comparative data supported analysis of disinvestment of a profit making and of a loss making enterprise.
The 458-pager is dedicated to the author’s father, late S.A. Susai, who had been a teacher for 45 years at St. Michael’s School, Sengudi in Tamil Nadu.
Reproduced from The Herald Kolkata Vol. 148 (CXLVIII) No. 37
City:
- Kolkotta