P. R. Brahmananda at 100

P. R. Brahmananda (1926–2003) was one of the most original and independent voices in Indian economics. His birth centenary provides an occasion for critical re-evaluation of a body of work whose concerns remain strikingly contemporary. Best known for the Vakil–Brahmananda wage-goods approach, he challenged the heavy-industry bias of Second Plan strategy by arguing that employment expansion in a labour-surplus economy required adequate supplies of food and other basic consumption goods. His later monetary writings, developed amid monetarist debates and stagflation, extended the same concern with mass welfare by treating inflation as a threat to real wages and livelihood security. This commentary reads these contributions as a coherent framework linking employment, productive capacity, price stability and welfare. It also uses that framework to interpret current debates on rural employment guarantees, including the transition from MGNREGA to VB–G RAM G, and argues that inclusive growth requires employment expansion to be supported by both wage-goods supply and macroeconomic stability.