Professor R S Deshpande was Professor and Director of Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. He was formerly National Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). He was the initiator of the proposal and founding Director of Bengaluru Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics,. Prof. Deshpande steered the mega study on “Farmer at the Millennium” and was the architect of Karnataka’s Agricultural Policy 2006 and Chaired many Policy Bodies in Agricultural Sector. He is BSc, M.A with Econometrics and PhD in Economics. Dr Deshpande has authored 22 books, and more that 125 research papers published in national- international journals and completed 49 research studies. He was invited as Visiting Professor to universities and institution in Canada, France, US. He is recipient of many awards and gold medals especially PNASF Gold Medal for Agricultural Policy, Life Time Achievement Award from Aurangabad University, Sir M Visveswaraya award in excellence in Education. He participated in the deliberations at Planning Commission from 9th Plan onwards. He was on the Research Advisory Committee of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Central Silk Board and also a member of the selection panel under CACP. Recognising his work, he is recently awarded at a special function as Fellow of Karnataka Science and Technology Academy of Karnataka. He was on the Selection Committees of Vice Chancellors in the country. Dr Deshpande supervised as adviser 29 students for PhD. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, where he was educated. He was also unanimously elected as the President of the Platinum Jubilee Conference of Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, held at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana in November, 2015. He was trustee of Indian Institute of Education, Pune, and President of the Foundation for Research in Health Systems, Bangalore.