DR. JASWANT RAI JINDIA
Dr. Jaswant Rai Jindia was born in 1930 in Nabha, which at that time was a princely state in Punjab. In his childhood he lived in a large brick house which was shared by a large number of uncles and their families. The house had a hand pump for water supply, but no running water or electricity. The education system in the princely city was very good. The State High School was well funded. When he graduated from High School in 1946, a college opened up in Nabha. So he continued with his studies. He obtained his master’s degree in Economics from Punjab University in 1953 and started teaching and research at Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana.
In 1966 he came to the University of Illinois for his Ph.D. program and after obtaining his degree in 1970 he started teaching at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. From July to December 1978 he was in Kenya (East Africa) to study the Impact of Rural Cooperatives on Income and Employment in Kenya. From May 1984 to January 1987 he was in Sierra Leone (West Africa) as Economist with Adaptive Crop Research and Extension Project funded by USAID.
As professor at Southern University he taught Economics, Statistics, Managerial Economics and Economics of Development, at undergraduate and graduate levels. As Economist in Sierra Leone, West Africa, he gave lectures and seminars on various subjects such as: Economic Development of Sierra Leone; Economics of Cassava and Sweet Potato production in Sierra Leone and animal Power as an aid to the Agricultural Production in Sierra Leone.
He has conducted research on very diverse topics such as Economic Development of Africa;
Study of the Transportation and Marketing of Cassava in Sierra Leone (W. Africa); cost and benefit analysis of advanced technology packages for agricultural development; sample surveys to assess the effectiveness of development projects; and impact of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).