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Raja Chelliah

Indian economist (1922–2009)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ7285424
Source-derived summary

Raja Jesudoss Chelliah (12 December 1922 – 7 April 2009) was an economist and founding chairman of the Madras School of Economics. He completed an MA in economics from the University of Madras and after few years of teaching at Madras Christian College, he was awarded the Fulbright-SmithMundt fellowship to pursue his PhD in economics from University of Pittsburgh. He worked as the chief of the Fiscal Analysis Division, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund between 1969 and 1975. He served as a consultant to the government of Papua New Guinea on Centre Provincial Financial Relations. He also worked in several state and central government financial institutions in India. He was considered a public finance expert in India, instrumental in bringing about the early reforms to the direct taxation structure. He was awarded Padma Vibushan in 2007. He is often referred to as "The Father of Tax Reforms".

Personal life and education

He was born on 12 December 1922. His father Chelliah Nadar was his greatest inspiration.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Raja Chelliah” is indian economist (1922–2009). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Raja, Chelliah and Indian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1922, 2009, 1969, 1975—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1922-12-12. For this dossier, Raja, Chelliah and Indian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “indian economist (1922–2009)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7285424. VIAF identifies the subject as 112398522. The Library of Congress control number is n82075371. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 2009, 1969 and 1975.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Raja Chelliah”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Raja Chelliah primary sources, Raja Chelliah archive and Raja research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Raja Chelliah”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Raja Chelliah” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.