-- American ambassador to India during Kennedy administration Prof. John Kenneth Galbraith has described him as a mathematician of most wonderful appearance and vigour in his book Ambassador's Journal. (They met during the function to welcome the ambassador when he visited University of Pune). He was also a classmate of noted Cambridge economist A.C. Pigou. -->
The object was "to state in precise form the value judgments required for the derivation of the conditions of maximum economic welfare" set out by earlier writers, including Marshall and Pigou, Pareto and Barone, and Lerner.