New Delhi, Oct. 24 -- Studying undergraduate economics came with its highs and lows. The exciting bits were studying side-by-side the impact of Adam Smith and Karl Marx on modern economic thought, with another professor trying to squeeze a complicated David Ricardo somewhere in between. Some of the other big names (such as John Maynard Keynes) figured in the micro- and macroeconomics papers. Even a formal study of the Indian economy was made interesting by linking theory with application: for example, how India's planning system re-purposed the Harrod-Domar growth model as the basis for India's first five-year plan (1951-56).

And then there was public finance, a full 100-mark paper, with classes scheduled right after the lunch recess; on...