Reprise of the Canons of Development Economics Deena Khatkhate A fter the end of the second world war, two platforms for the eco- nomic debate, both among academics and policymakers occupied the centre stage. First was the reconstruction of the war-devastated economies of western Europe and, second, development of the former colonies. The first was a relatively simple affair without any need to conceptualise an analytic framework. All that was necessary was a mobilisation of resources, though of massive proportion, to uplift the war-ravaged industrialised economies on a growth trajectory. This was accomplished by a huge resource transfer from the richest country in the world, i e, the US. Since the basic foundation of capitalist enterprise was undamaged and skills of the surviving population to restore it remained intact, those economies revived with great speed and vibrancy and though the World Bank was set up with one of the objectives of helping that process, it played only a peripheral role. Instead the World Bank