Overview

• Lord Desai died on July 29 in a Gurugram hospital at the age of 85 after a brief health issue.
• He taught at the London School of Economics from 1965 to 2003 and founded its Centre for the Study of Global Governance in 1992 while directing the Development Studies Institute from 1990 to 1995.
• Desai chaired Britain’s Labour Party from 1986 to 1992, was appointed a life peer in the House of Lords in 1991 and resigned from the party in 2020 over its handling of antisemitism.
• A prolific author, he published over 200 academic articles and influential books including Marxian Economic Theory (1973) and Marx’s Revenge (2002).
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, House of Lords colleagues and leading economists have paid tribute to his six-decade legacy in scholarship and public service.