The Centre for Study of Developing Economies (CDE) is envisaged as a teaching, research and dissemination hub on the specific problems of developing economies. By developing economies, we refer to those countries that continue to be backward with respect to the material well-being of people. Material well-being includes per capita incomes, but it is a wider and richer conception of development; the term is employed here to mean the fundamental, primary conditions of human existence.

The CDE focuses on engaging with the problems of developing economies from a historical and political economy perspective; studies of changes in the spheres of production, distribution and exchange would have special emphasis. While the problems of Indian economy would remain an enduring interest, the research agenda expands beyond India.