Like nations and civilizations, sciences also pass through
period of crises when established theories are overthrown by the
unpredictable behaviour of events. Economics is passing through such a
crisis. The challenge thrown by the Great Depression of early 1930s took
a decade before Keynes re-established the supremacy of economics. But
this supremacy has again been upset by the crisis of poverty in the vast
under-developed world which attained political independence after the
Second World War. Poverty had always existed but never before had it
been of such concern to economists as during the past twenty five years
or so. Economic literature dealing with this problem has piled up but so
have the agonies of poverty. No plausible and well-integrated theory of
economic development or under-development has emerged so far, though
brilliant advances have been made in isolated directions.
