Shortly after independence, a group of visionaries led by Professor V.K.R.V. Rao and supported by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, launched a project to create a Centre for advanced studies in the social sciences that would compare with the best in the world. Thus began the Delhi School of Economics in 1949. Currently, the School comprises the departments of economics, geography and sociology, of which the first has undoubtedly been outstanding and dynamic. The department of economics was designated a Centre of Advanced Study by the University Grants Commission. In 1993, the Centre for Development Economics was created within the department, to strengthen the research infrastructure.