The Department of Economics was set up in the year 1931. In the initial years, the Department was led, for a brief while, by the British educationists who were instrumental in laying a strong foundation for the Department. Later on eminent economists such as Prof. Sadasiv Mishra, Prof. D. C. Misra and Prof. K. M. Patnaik adorned the chair of Head of the Department, and under their leadership the Department achieved the glory of being one of the best departments in the state as well as the country.