CHALLENGES AND RELEVANCE OF ECONOMICS AS QUEEN OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN PRESENT SCENARIO

Abstract

In the paper an attempt has been made to respond to the question that the teachers and the researchers in economics are to do what? why? when? where? for Whom with Altruism? Further issues have been identified for deliberation and discussion on relevance and education of economics for the other disciplines in social sciences. Being humble students, teachers and researchers in economics, we believe that there are gaps in the learning, teaching and research in the subject which is otherwise important for one and all as consumers, producers, distributors and traders. Unfortunately, it is the economics of education which has devalued the value of education. We need to strength the educational value of education instead of devaluing it by attaching economic value to it. There is trade off between teaching and research in economics. Most of the teachers in schools and colleges are not able to do research of any kind in the subject of economics for want of time whereas most of the teachers in universities and research institutions devote more time to research obviously to get promotions which are based on research contributions and not the quality of teaching. The number of students in economics in schools, colleges and universities are declining probably because of the fear of mathematics which must be used to understand economics and not to complicate the subject as observed by Paul Ormirod in his book ‘ Death of Economics.†The use of software SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is necessary but not sufficient in social science research. To make it sufficient, there is a strong case for proper analysis to draw policy implications which are otherwise missing. The use of SPSS is capable of re-establishing economics as a queen of social sciences as called by Noble Laureate Paul Samuelson. There is a strong case for higher allocation of funds for social science research in India.