This course introduces ecological economics as a transdisciplinary approach that examines the complex relationships between economic systems, ecological systems, and social institutions. Moving beyond conventional economic approaches that treats nature as external to the economy, the course examines the economy as an open, embedded subsystem of the finite biosphere, constrained by biophysical limits and shaped by social, cultural and institutional structures. It also departs from a reductionist unit of accounting, i.e., monetary and employs a variety of bio-physical and social indicators to explain the metabolic relationship between the economy, society and the biosphere. This course integrates insights from economics, ecology, physics and philosophy to address contemporary ecological crises such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing social and environmental inequalities. The course introduces students to the problems and principles of ecological economics, emphasizing concepts such as sustainable scale, material and energy flows, social metabolism, planetary boundaries, equity and intergenerational justice. Particular attention is given to real-world policy debates, with scope for contextualization to the Global South and India.