Ask HN: How important is a CS degree?

I'm an Indian student who recently graduated from high school. Due to how our schools here work, your subject choices in your junior year constrain you as to which undergraduate degrees you are able to attain, and due to circumstances out of my control, I couldn't go for the subjects that would let me go for a CS degree. (I'll be going for an Economics (hons.) degree at this point.)

If I want to go into software development, how harmful will this be for me? is there anything I can do to offset the lack of a CS degree?