Kaushik Basu who has written the foreword for the book says ‘Taking advantage of this (2011) being the Golden Jubilee Year of the IES (Indian Economic Service), it was decided to bring out a book written entirely by the officers of the service.’
Economics is a strange subject. The debate about whether it is a science which is an art or an art which is a science has been going on for several decades. Just like branding the subject is difficult, every issue in economics is difficult and has no straight answer. In a discussion on the notion of economics it has been argued that if mathematics oriented pure sciences is the study of figuring out if a hypothesis is valid or not, then economics is the study of whether allocating financial resources to such an activity (scientific research) is sensible or not. And that is why it is said that every issue in economics has no straight answer. In real life governments have to make a decision on whether a space programme should get funds or be given elsewhere.