Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil (10 April 1901 - 24 May 1971), also known as D. R. Gadgil, was an Indian economist and a former director of the Gokhale Institute. He had very broad intellectual interests ranging from sociology, public affairs and history to biology and astronomy, and he had a personal library of over 3,000 books [1] He was the author of the Gadgil formula.
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Gadgil received a Master of Arts degree and a Master of Letters degree from the University of Cambridge, as well as honoris causa Doctor of Letters degree.[2]
He held the post of vice-chancellor at the University of Poona. From 3 January 1966 to 31 August 1967, he was a member of the Rajya Sabha.[2] He also served as president of the Indian Economic Association for the Mysore venue in 1940.[3]
The idea of a cooperative was first mooted at a conference of irrigators and presided over by eminent economist Dr. D.R. Gadgil in 1945. It was only by the end of 1948 that the first cooperative society to be set up at Pravaranagar was registered. The resounding success of the Pravara resulted in the government taking a decision in 1954 of granting industrial licenses for sugar industry to co-operatives alone. Shri. D.R.Gadgil, the first industrial co-operative venture in Asia namely Pravara Cooperative Sugar Factory (1949) was started.[4]
A statue of him was inaugurated at Pravara Nagar by the Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh on February 8, 2008.[5]