S Mahendra Dev’s work spans agriculture development, poverty, public policy, inequality, food security, nutrition, employment guarantee schemes, and farm and non-farm employment. With such deep-rooted focus on development economics, he has published over 120 research publications across such domains including over 20 books. With such outstanding work on development studies, he headed the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices for Ministry of Agriculture. It is his conviction that agriculture growth at current prices will be cushioned from the deflationary trend in other services and industries and this could make the terms of trade favourable for the farm sector. In his writings, he has analysed the expenditure patterns of families based on NREGA wages leading towards greater expenditure on girl and boy children including education, health and nutrition. He is a votary of social sector schemes having positively impacted women’s well-being, empowerment and intra-household decisions. He was Director, Centre for Economic and Social Studies and Acting Charman of the National Statistical Commission.