Dr. Uma Shanker Pathak

Dr. Uma Shanker Pathak is an academician, economist and administrator. He was born on September 13th, 1933 in Katni, Madhya Pradesh. He had his early education in Katni, Mumbai, Chandrapur and Jabalpur. He obtained his graduate degree in arts from Sagar University (now Dr. Hari Singh Gaur Vishwavidyalaya) and Post graduate and Research degrees in economics from Jabalpur university (now Rani Durgawati Vishwavidyalaya). He has taught economics, conducted and guided research in economics. He also worked as economic administrator and held the post of Chief Economic Advisor, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Planning, Economics and Statistics Department.

He entered Madhya Pradesh Education Service (Collegiate Branch) preceding brief stints as lecturer in economics in two private colleges and held various teaching and administrative posts under Government of Madhya Pradesh. After his retirement from the service, he was called by Government of Madhya Pradesh to serve as Director Madhya Pradesh Hindi Granth Academy followed by Director, Institute for Excellence in Higher Education and by Government of Chhattisgarh as Education Advisor to the Government, Higher Education Department.

Dr. Pathak is a voracious reader and has travelled widely. He is a thinker and keen observer of events. He has the ability to take any long and complex subject and reduce it to its fundamentals. In a way, perhaps as his last lecture about economics, Dr. Pathak has recorded his thoughts in this book on the biggest economic problem faced by India, namely the problem of the existence of mass poverty in midst of plenty of natural resources, human resource and talent and provided an outline for eradication of the same.