Festschrift for khadi-wearing economist M.V. Nadkarni released in Bengaluru 

Explore 'Quest for Planetary Well-Being,' a festschrift honoring M.V. Nadkarni, addressing ethics and interconnectedness in economics.

As nations across the globe grapple with wars, ecological destruction, and a market-centric approach to garner more profits and achieve dominance, Quest for Planetary Well-Being: Essays in Honour of M. V. Nadkarni, a volume published by Palgrave Macmillan, emphasises that human well-being is inseparable from the vitality of the planet itself, and provides ethical dimensions to curb human greed.

The book, edited by two social scientists — Professors Ananta Giri and R.S. Deshpande — is a festschrift to economist M.V. Nadkarni (MVN), whose academic work spans economics, sociology, political economy, environment, ethics, religion, and Gandhian thought. His signature clothing is a khadi kurta.

Prof. MVN, a former vice-chancellor of Gulbarga University, who turned 87 on February 23, has to his credit 40 books and over 150 papers in academic journals and edited volumes in India and abroad.

Quest for Planetary Well-Being: Essays in Honour of M. V. Nadkarni contains 29 essays extending over 600 pages in three major parts, reflecting the overall health and resilience of the earth’s inter-connected systems. These well-researched essays cover intrinsic ecological, social, and economic issues that have a strong bearing on humanity’s ability to flourish within those boundaries.

The cover of Quest for Planetary Well-Being. Essays in Honour of M.V. Nadkarni, edited by Ananta Kumar Giri and R.S. Deshpande.

The book asks: What does it mean to live well together on a fragile planet? It highlights that wealth and well-being arise in society more from co-operation and complementarity than from competition. This is true not only at the individual level, but also among communities and countries.