When it was conceptualised in October 2016, Bengaluru Dr. B.R. Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) here was touted to be on a par with the London School of Economics. Reality, however, may be far from these aspirations. With little over a month left for classes to commence, several key decisions such as syllabus, fee structure and even faculty members have still not been finalised.
BASE, which is an autonomous institute, will offer a Bachelor of Science (Honours) programme in economics and will have an intake of 50 students for the 2017–18 academic year. The State Cabinet has approved ₹150 crore for the construction of the building, which will come up on 43.35 acres of land on Bangalore University’s Jnana Bharathi campus. Currently, their office is located on the first floor of a building on Racecourse Road.
This academic year, the school will function from the visual arts building on the Jnana Bharathi campus and classes are scheduled to commence from August 26.
Sources in the school pointed out that they had approached at least 10 experts to be visiting faculty members but are yet to receive co nfirmation.
M.B. Dyaberi, Chief Executive Officer, said the institute would start with visiting faculty members and later appoint permanent faculty. “There are currently four retired people and two outsourced staff who are working full time for BASE,” he said.
He said that the institute had approached economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia and hopes to seek guidance from him in building a “world-class” institute.
Mr. Dyaberi also said that everything would be done on a “war footing” and be completed in a fortnight. As of now, approximately 308 students have applied for 50 seats and they will be shortlisted based on a written test that will be conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority.
In April this year, the foundation stone for BASE was laid by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Economics from Ambedkar’s point of view
Students who join the Bengaluru Dr. B.R. Ambedkar School of Economics will be studying B.R. Ambedkar’s view of economics and aspects such as economics of discrimination, caste, monetary economics, and federal finances.
R.S. Deshpande, Director and Adviser of the Centre for Development Studies at PES University, has been vested with the responsibility of putting together the syllabus. He said that as the institute was named after Ambedkar, the students at the undergraduate level would be familiarised with his revolutionary idea of economics.
