Association of Economists of Tamil Nadu (AET)

S.NO.135/2000
Registered Office: Department of Economics, St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli – 620 002

ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMISTS OF TAMIL NADU was born in 1980. This association also functioned for some years in the name of Association of Economists of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry (Regd.S.No.22 of 1982)

The origin of the Association goes back to 1975-76, when a group of college teachers in and around Tiruchirappalli, collected around Fr. M. Sebastian SJ., Prof. and Head of Department of Economics, St.Joseph’s College and organized themselves under his leadership into an ECONOMICS CLUB for professional advancement. This group met periodically discussed papers presented by members of the club on issues of National and International interest.

It was generally accepted that one great weakness of the college teachers of Tamil Nadu was that they were poorly equipped in quantitative tools. To get over this deficiency, Fr. Sebastian took the lead to organize four consecutive summer course in this area. About forty to fifty college professors drawn from all over Tamil Nadu benefited from this summer programmes immensely. It was during these meetings, that the majority of the members expressed a desire that there should be an academically oriented organization for college professors, and they urged Fr. Sebastian to take the lead and organize and Association based on St.Joseph’s College.

In April 1980, the first annual conference of this loosely formed Association was held at St.Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli-2. The topic chosen for discussion was “Budgetary Measures to Contain Inflation.” About 25 members attended the conference and the Association was christened, “ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMISTS.” It was decided that a Constitution should be formulated and passed by the General Body. In the course of the year, a draft of the Constitution was drafted and circulated among members for comments. In the next conference, held in the campus of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, the constitution was discussed and passed by the General Body. In this second Annual Conference, the topic discussed was “National Wage Policy.” Over 50 professors attended the conference. Membership fee was fixed at Rs.20/-per annum. The conference was held in October, 1982. It was during this year that the Association came to be registered.

The founding group was made up of the following:

• Rev. Fr. Dr. M. Sebastian SJ

• Dr. S. Varadarajan, Dr.S. Neelakantan, Dr. C. Thangamuthu

• Dr.M. Ramadas, Dr. A. Mariaraj & Dr. D. Rathnasamy

• Prof. Arul Jeganatharaj & Dr. M.H. Abu Baker

• Dr. M.R. Nagarajan & Dr. Thiruvenkatachary

• Dr. Sangili & Prof. Susairaj.

From 1982 onwards the Association started to gain strength both in membership and in organization. In 1983, the membership rose to 150, advanced to 20 in 1984, and reached the peak of 400 in 1990. Today’s strength is 881 as life members.

Present Office bearers of AET:

• Rev Dr AG Leonard SJ, Chairman

• Rev Dr P Paulraj, Co-Chairman

• Dr T Ravisankar, Secretary

• Dr P Jayakumar, Treasurer