Prof Deepak Lal passed away at 80

                                        Prof Deepak Lal: 1940-2020

Extremely sad to hear that Prof Deepak Lal has passed away on 30.04.2020. He was 80. One of the greatest classical liberals of twentieth century, I had privilege of meeting him in Delhi several years ago.

He had planned to visit India couple of months ago but due to hit of coronovirus, he was stuck at London.

When the climate mania was in debate Prof Deepak Lal wrote several articles (in Business Standards) with historical data on the belief o the myths of one-side understanding of climate change. It was very insightful articles but many would disagree and they cannot ignore it.

• the “technocratic public economics approach to public policy” as he put it, “is ahistorical, suffers from amnesia concerning the history of economic thought, is ideological insofar as it sets up egalitarianism as a self‐​evident objective of public policy, is institutionally impoverished and, most seriously, makes assumptions about the character of most governments which—to put it mildly—are not universally valid!”

His web page at UCLA has kept almost all of his works here.

The following are Obituaries on Prof Deepak Lal's life and work:

Classicism and liberalism were two values that defined the man by TCA Srinivasa Raghavan

For a conservative, Deepak Lal saw deep strengths in India's civil society by Suman Bery

Profound philosopher in all travails & joys of life and living by Mani Shankar Aiyer

Cato Institute's obituary

• His book, The Poverty of “Development Economics,” published by the Institute of Economic Affairs in 1983 and subsequently revised and expanded, is still one of the best critiques available of the thinking that dominated, and to some degree still informs, development economics.

A friend of mine had reviewed one Prof Lal's book in Livemint is here.