Returning to Madras Christian College between 1962 and 1978, he was professor and head of the Department of Economics. Kurien was a National Fellow of the University Grants Commission from 1975 to 1977. In 1978, he was appointed director of the
Madras Institute of Development Studies, a national centre for social science research, holding this position for ten years. He was a National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research from 1992 to 1994. He was chairman of the
Madras Institute of Development Studies from 1997 to 2003, when he retired from academic work. As of 2012 he was a member of the board of the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Karnataka. His most recent book
"WEALTH AND ILLFARE — An Expedition into Real Life Economics" was published in 2012, when the author was 80. It provides an accessible overview of economics, but questions the value of an economic system based on the pure pursuit of profit. ==Death==