Thereafter, as a Rhodes Scholar, he went on to study at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he obtained a B.Phil.

His 1974 doctoral thesis was titled "An Analysis of the Stagnation in India's Cotton Textile Exports" under the supervision of P. P. Streeten.

Later, he was chief economic adviser to the Government of India and secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

And he is chairman of Sameeksha Trust, which publishes Economic and Political Weekly.

He served as chairman of the board of governors of the World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, from 2001 to 2008 and vice president of the International Association of Universities, Paris, from 2004 to 2008.

He was on the board of directors of the Social Science Research Council in the United States from 2001 to 2007 and was chairman of the advisory council for the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, from 2004 to 2007.