In Memoriam: Dr. Veeranna Basavabtappa Angadi (1944–2026) - The Architect of Inclusive Economics and Academic Excellence.
Dr. Veeranna Basavantappa Angadi (VB Angadi) was not merely an economist; he was a bridge between the complex world of global finance and the stark realities of rural India. Born on 8 April, 1944, at a village, Hire Bomnal, in the turbulent pre-independence era in the Raichur district of the Nizam’s Hyderabad, he carried with him the silent history of the Kalyana Karnataka region. His journey from a village witnessing the brutality of the Nizams Razakars to the corridors and high echelons of the Reserve Bank of India is a story of quiet, relentless perseverance.
Dr VB Angadi passed away peacefully in his sleep in the early morning on Tuesday, 24 February, 2026, at around 5.30 AM in his home, situated at the RBI Hemal CHS, Andheri West, Mumbai. Incidentally, the RBI Hemal CHS which was home to him post his retirement from RBI in 2004 owes its existence to his untiring efforts and perseverance as the founder President of this society, which is now home to many retired RBI officers.
Like many of his contemporaries born during the pre independence period, he was one among those who grew up seeing the poverty ridden India that was shaking the shackles of the colonial rule with fight for its independence. Post independence, with no foreign rule hangover, and his parents not so well off in his village in Hire Bomnal that did not have any schools to study, his father, Basavantappa Angadi, decided to put the young Veeranna for free education in a Lingayat (Veerashiva) Math in Koppal : The famous Samsthana Shri Gavimath. This centuries old Lingayat Math (800 to 1000-year-old historic Lingayat monastery) situated on a rocky hillock in Koppal (which has recently gained massive prominence as a major spiritual and social hub in North Karnataka) was an important education and spiritual centre where free education was imparted for children, more specifically for Lingayat community. Known for its unique 24/7 Trividha Dasoha (providing free food, education, and shelter), this Math has now become one of the most revered centres of faith, often attracting lakhs of devotees during its annual fair, similar to a "Kumbh Mela of the South".
The young Veeranna studied at this historic Math, which offered him free education, food and stay during his early school days. He completed his schooling at this math during which his brilliance was noticed by his teachers. After completing his intermediate he was motivated by his teachers at the Math to move to Dharwad, which had by then gained prominence for its education. His poor family conditions did not come his way since he had earned a recommendation from the Seers in Koppal Govimath to the Muruga Math.
The Murugha Math (Sri Jagadguru Murugharajendra Mahaswamiji Math) is one of the most influential Lingayat religious and educational institutions in the Hubli-Dharwad region of Karnataka. It has played a pivotal role in the socio-cultural fabric of North Karnataka for over a century. This Math in Dharwad is a branch of the primary Chitradurga Murugha Math. It follows the teachings of the 12th-century philosopher-saint Basavanna, the founder of Lingayat, focusing on "Kayaka" (work) and "Dasoha" (service/charity).
The Dharwad branch gained significant prominence under the leadership of Sri Mrityunjaya Swamiji, who is often revered as the "Architect of Modern Dharwad’s Educational Landscape." He arrived at the Math in the early 20th century and transformed it from a purely religious centre into a hub for social reform.
Sri Mrityunjaya Swamiji realized that students like Veeranna, from rural areas were unable to pursue higher education in Dharwad due to the high cost of living. Around 1915, he began providing free food and shelter to a small group of students within the Math premises. By the 1920s, this Math grew into a structured Free Boarding Home (Prasad Nilaya). It was revolutionary because it allowed students like Veeranna Angadi, from impoverished backgrounds to stay in the city and attend school or college without paying for room or board. While this math was initially focused on Lingayat students to preserve the community's educational advancement, the Math eventually expanded its philanthropic reach. Under subsequent seers like Sri Mahanta Swamiji, the focus shifted toward inclusive education for all communities, though it remains a cornerstone of Lingayat heritage. It was at this Math that Veeranna Angadi stayed and pursued his graduation and post graduation studies in arts with economics as his specialisation.
All through his studies, he grew up amidst students of his ilk, who were beneficiaries of a system that offered them free education. This had a lasting impact on Veeranna Angadi which later became an inspiration for him to improve the plight of his community in his village.
Post his Masters, Veeranna managed to earn a teaching assignment in a small town Ilkal. It was during his stay at Ilkal he became familiar with the lives of the weavers community who had made Ilkal a prominent place in textiles with Ilkal Sarees becoming a brand of its own. However, as time passed and with the onset of textile industry and mechanised production of textile clothes, the weavers in Ilkal started facing problems which appealed to Veeranna motivating him to pursue his Doctoral studies on this subject under the title Power-looms and Handlooms in Bijapur District. He earned a PhD from the Karnataka University during his teaching days in Ilkal. Later he was offered a Principals position in a college in Sankeshvar, Belgaum district. By then he had married to Shanta Angadi and had four children, the eldest - Vidya, Angadi, later became my wife, Vidya Khened. He made profound impact at both Ilkal and Sankeshvar colleges during his stay in these institutions. While at Sankeshvar his attention was drawn to a economist position in RBI, which too him was an institution of excellence he always looked up to and it took no time for him to decide making an attempt to join RBI.
Meritorious that he always was he got selected and joined RBI and was posted at its headquarters in. Mumbai. He rose in rank and files at RBI contributing to the institution. He worked in the economics department with RBI and during the days of Late Manmohan Singh, who was the Governor of RBI from 1982-85, Dr Veeranna worked with him on measures of monetary restraint, curbing inflationary expectations, stability of exchange rate etc. Veeranna Angadi, in a way was also played a small part in the later Economic Reform Policy that Manmohan Singh scripted and introduced. This became the cornerstone of the 1991 economic liberalisation that Manmohan Singh introduced as the Finance Minister which served a turning point in the policy framework for the Indian Economy.
Although Dr. VB Angadi started his working life as a teacher at a college in Ilkal and later as the Principal in Sankeshvar college, his professional life was defined by two great pillars: Policy and Pedagogy.
The RBI Years were truly transformative for Dr Angadi. It was here that he could use his interest and passion for economics to its fullest best. Impressed by his contributions, the RBI provided him a life time opportunity to undertake a postdoctoral study at the Princeton University. His one year stay and studies at the Princeton University was one of the most illustrious chapters of his life. Staying in the very precinct, once inhabited by Albert Einstein, Dr. Angadi engaged in high-level research alongside Jeffrey Sachs, the world-renowned proponent of sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
Sustainable development has increasingly emerged as the central framework for addressing the persistent challenge of global poverty. The work of Jeffrey Sachs, a globally respected development economist, with whom Dr Angadi worked in Princeton, provides a powerful intellectual foundation for understanding how economic growth, social equity, and environmental stewardship must advance together. When viewed alongside the grassroots-oriented perspectives associated with Dr. V. B. Angadi, the conversation becomes especially relevant for countries like India, where development must be both rapid and inclusive.
Sachs consistently argued that poverty is not an intractable destiny but a solvable problem with the right mix of targeted investments, institutional reforms, and international cooperation. His advocacy of the Millennium Development Goals and later the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasizes measurable outcomes in health, education, and livelihoods. Crucially, Sachs highlights that extreme poverty often persists not because of lack of knowledge, but due to gaps in implementation, financing, and political will.
Dr. V. B. Angadi’s approach, rooted in field realities and institutional experience, complements this macro-development vision. Where Sachs provides the global roadmap, Angadi’s perspective underscores the importance of last-mile delivery, community engagement, and context-sensitive innovation. In the Indian setting, poverty alleviation cannot rely solely on top-down economic expansion; it must also leverage local knowledge systems, capacity building, and accessible science and technology interventions.
The convergence of these two viewpoints points to several actionable insights. First, investments in human capital—particularly education, public health, and digital inclusion—remain the most reliable poverty reducers.
For India and similar emerging economies, the real opportunity lies in synthesizing Sachs’s global development economics with Angadi’s ground-level pragmatism. Such a blended approach recognises that poverty alleviation is simultaneously a policy challenge, a governance challenge, and a societal commitment.
In this intellectual crucible at Princeton, Dr. Angadi focused on many Welfare Economics in which RBI a could play a role - Financial Inclusion: Developing frameworks to ensure banking reached the "unbanked" in India's hinterlands, Priority Sector Lending, Analysing how credit could be directed to agriculture and small-scale industries to prevent the very poverty he witnessed in his youth. The Human Cost of Economics: His work always asked not just how much the economy was growing, but for whom it was growing.
Coincidentally, it was just before his selection for his Princeton assignment that his daughter, Vidya Angadi was selected for an alliance with yours truly and our engagement ceremony was conducted at the Jalada RBI quarters in Prabhadevi in August 1989. On his return from his studies in Princeton, Vidya and I got married in December 1990.
At RBI Dr Angadi undertook different assignments including as the teaching faculty at the prestigious RBI Bankers Training College in Mumbai which offers training to the senior management of different Banks in India. He later rose to becoming the Director of the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy (DEAP) group at the Reserve Bank of India. He was associated with RBI during a transformative era for the Indian economy. Working closely with visionaries like Dr. Manmohan Singh, he contributed to the research that underpinned India’s shift toward modernisation while ensuring that "Welfare Economics" remained at the heart of the conversation.
Post his retirement from RBI in 2004, he was keen to go back to the area of his interest, teaching. He therefore joined the Lala Lajpat Rai Institute of Management in 2006, which was then a fledgling institute. He took this institution to greater heights during his tenure as the Director of the institution, during which he also guided many of his PhD students. He continued to remain attached to this institution until his last breath. He served as the Director of this college for many years before retiring and wearing the robe of an Adviser to this institution, a position he held until his passing.
He transformed the Lala Lajpat Rai Institute of Management (LLIM) in Mumbai. Under his directorship, the institute didn't just grow in size; it grew in "stature and soul," becoming a hub for research-driven management education attaining the A category status from the UGC. I had the honour to address the large gathering at LLMI during a conference that they organised on the role of IT in management.
Even as he served with LLMI his mind was always with the village that he was born, Hire Bombay. He purchased agricultural lands in this village and invested in building a temple in honour of his father at the village and also invested in many other community development programs and facility in the village including establishing a small village which he equipped with as many resources as possible. I played a small part in this endeavour in identifying science materials in the form of both printed books and materials and digital resources that became a part of this library which now stands modestly in this village.
Perhaps his greatest title was not "Director" or "Doctor," but "Son of the Soil." His commitment to his ancestral village, Hire Bomnal, serves as a blueprint for "giving back." By establishing a library and mentoring generations of students from his extended family and village, he ensured that the light of education he fought so hard to find would never go out for those following in his footsteps.
"He mastered the macro-economics of a nation, but never forgot the micro-needs of a village student."
It was during the times of Covid and thereafter, Dr Angadi started facing medical problems. Couple of years before he had lost his beloved wife, Shanta Angadi, who was a pillar of strength for him and his family. A year later, he also lost his eldest son pramod Angadi, who was staying in Mumbai, separately with his family. That left the devastated Dr VB Angadi shattered and he had to stay all alone in his Andheri Hemal flat. Unfortunately, although he has four children, his younger daughter, Veena Patil, and family stay in England as its citizens and similarly his younger son Basavraj Angadi and family are settled in Australia as Australian citizens. Although my wife and I were posted in Mumbai and were staying in our office quarters in Worli, Mumbai, he was hesitant to stay with us, believing in those age old traditions that he should not stay in his son laws place. When his wife was around, he was managing well staying together. However, post the death of his wife and elder son, he stayed alone and managed with house help and of course distant support from my wife, who used to ensure that he visits us frequently and she too visited him frequently. Staying alone started taking some toll on his health and then Covid came. When there was complete lockdown he had great difficulty during the lockdown period, although my wife tried supporting his with whatever she could manage, asking my office colleague staying in Andheri to support him as far as possible.
Fortunately, being a Government servant who could travel in office transport during the Covid period in early 2020, I took the first opportunity to shift him from his home in Andheri to our office quarters in April 2020. Ever since he stayed with us until we moved to his flat in Andheri in 2023.
During the Covid period, he started facing severe problems with his prostate which he had neglected despite Doctors advice. Attending to his medical problem during the peak of Covid was a major issue, my wife with my support, some how managed to take him to Jaslok Hospital for his prostate problem, where after examination, the Doctor - Dr Raina, advised that he must undergo Prostate surgery at the earliest. Unfortunately, he being a diabetic patient, with his higher sugar levels, and hypertension, the operation had to wait till his sugars were stabilised. Fortunately, his operation (July 2020), went off well, however, he developed some complications during post operative care. He had a mild cardiac arrest which resulted in his shifting to the ICU in Jaslok. Fortunately, since he was in hospital, he came out of the cardiac arrest. But then when in ICU, during his cardiac examination the Doctors discovered six major blocks and we were advised that he must immediately undergo bypass surgery. This was a shock for us more so since that was during Covid and the situation was unimaginable. Moreover, he had already faced a major health issue of a cardiac problem post his prosthetic surgery and risking a bypass surgery was a big risk with his diabetic problem and hypertension. Moreover, his son and daughter were abroad. With the advice of my classmate Doctor friends including cardiac doctor, we decided not to venture the bypass, which according to my Doctor friends was inadvisable then, a period of uncertainty. He was discharged and stayed with us ever since. We consulted other expert heart specialists in KEM, Breach Candy, Jaslok and others and every one was in agreement with us that putting him on surgery is not advised. He enjoyed his stay at our Worli office quarters primarily because it gave him lot of space and time to walk around the lush green campus inside the Nehru Science Centre, and that ambience and an exemplary love and care of my wife for her father improved his health substantially.
post my retirement we moved to even better accommodation in the precincts of CSMVS where I now serve as the Advisor, He thoroughly enjoyed his stay with us there. Unfortunately, due to structural issue with the old building we had to move out of the Museum campus to his flat in Andheri which had remained empty for three years. Notwithstanding his heart ailment and so also his other issues with severe diabetic Co diction and hypertension, under the care and love of my wife, his doting daughter he improved substantially, against the prognosis of what the Doctors in Jaslok and. Reach Candy where he was admitted for his heart ailments in 2023. However, he had to continue us to be on medication and he was admitted on at least four times at the nearby Belluvia Hospital near our residence. His last admission was on 16 February and he was discharged on 19th.
Dr Angadi was passing through period of trials and tribulations for nearly three years with his failing health, the last several months of which had left him immovable warranting support in all his activities, mundane included, which his doting daughter, my wife, who worked more like a mother than a daughter to him, was lovingly performing in his last days taking exemplary care of him.
On his sudden passing on the early morning of 24 February, no wonder his daughter prevailed in ensuring his wish to be cremated in the village - where he was born - and laid to rest adjacent to his wife in his agriculture fields has been fulfilled notwithstanding operational difficulties which we had face. His last rites was performed at Hire Bomnal,following all the ritual burial practices which go with the cremation of people belonging to the Lingayat community members. Fortunately, his daughter Veena and her husband who reside in England and his Son, who resides in Australia also made it to pay their last respect to their be,over father in the large presence of village elders and many of his friends and relatives and Villagers and people from far of places including Koppal where he has a small house, which he used whenever he went to his native village, which was too frequent until Covid set in.
On performing his final rites in Hire Bomnal on 26 February, Dr. V.B. Angadi returns to the earth of Hire Bomnal, leaving behind a legacy of brilliance, compassion, and an unshakeable belief that economics is, at its core, the study of human dignity. And that any one irrespective of their family hardship and beginning can raise to the heights that he rose, by sheer hard work and dedication and contribute back to their society. As a Son In law, the husband of his eldest children, and husband of Vidya, Baby to her, all his life, until his last breath,I feel honoured to have played a minor role in his caregiving with my support to my wife who is still in his native place performing and fulfilling us tons and rituals and wishes of her doting father. I am sure Dr Angadi will miss his baby a lot who took exemplary care of him not as a daughter but more like his own mother,the words which he uttered innumerable times often times at the irritation of his daughter. Even a brief period of absence of his daughter scared him and he would say, come back fast before his passing, often times angering his daughter. She would forget these and any such instances which increased with the onset of Parkinson, which had begin to set in.
On his passing he leaves a legacy for his village where every one, elders of the village more particularly, looks up to him and recall his contributions to his village which he loved so deeply and it where he now resides in eternal peace and bliss, praying almighty that his land be blessed to produce many many more Angadis.
Om Shanti Rest in Peace Dr VB Angadi.
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