[3] He was the founder Director of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune[3] and the author of the Gadgil formula, which served as the base for the allocation of central assistance to states during the Fourth and Fifth Five Year Plans of India.

[5] Gadgil was born on 10 April 1901 in Nasik in the western Indian state of Maharashtra[1] as the son of Ramchandra Bhargav,[6] in Brahmin family which had migrated from the Konkan region.

[1] It is reported that the dissertation he submitted for his MLitt degree became a classic[3] and was published by Oxford University Press[8] as a book, The Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times in 1924.

[1] Once in his home country, Gadgil joined the Maharashtra government service but gave it up in 1925 to serve as the principal at the Maganlal Thakordas Balmukunddas Arts College, Surat.

[10] In 1946, the Government of Maharashtra entrusted him and A. D. Gorwala, an Indian Civil Service officer, with the responsibility of devising a plan for the distribution of food in times of scarcity, and they recommended the introduction of fair price shops and rationing system, reportedly against the suggestions of Mahatma Gandhi.

[17] In 1969, he evolved a set of guidelines for the purpose, popularly known as the Gadgil formula, which formed the base of central assistance to states in the Fourth and the Fifth Five-Year Plans of India.

[18] In 1990, the standards were again modified, when Pranab Mukherjee, the former President of India, held the post of the deputy chairmanship of the Planning Commission, and the new set of rules came to be known as Gadgil-Mukherjee formula.

[31] In 2011, Oxford University Press, compiled his works[2] and published India Economy: Problems and Prospects, The: Selected Writings of D.R Gadgil, edited by the noted economist-activist, Sulabha Brahme.