Highlights
- Indian origin Abhijit Banerjee jointly with Economist wife Esther Duflo and Harvard Professor Michael Kremer bagged Noble in Economics of 2019.
- Prof. Abhijit Banerjee quoted that he is elated to get the Nobel for his research focused on economically poorest people
- “India Economy is on shaky ground. After witnessing (growth) data, just can’t be sure about it (revival of the economy in the near future).
America based Indian Economist Dr. Abhijit Banerjee has been announced Nobel Prize in Economics for the year 2019. The Noble prize has been declared jointly with his fellow eminent Economists Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer. The Trio won the Nobel for their joint paper “Experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”
Dr. Abhijit Banerjee (58 years old) and his French-American economist wife Esther Duflo both are Professor of Economics at the Ford Foundation International at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA. While Michael Kramer is Professor at Harvard University.
It is noteworthy that Dr.Banerjee is the eighth Indian-born person to win a Nobel and wife and fellow economist Esther Duflo is one the youngest woman economist to bag Nobel.
Family and Academic Odyssey
Born in Kolkata, with both parents as Professor of Economics, he completed his post-graduation from JNU and obtained his Ph. D in Economics from Harvard. His specialization is in Developmental Economics.
Abhijit’s father Deepak Banerjee taught economist at Presidency College, Kolkata. His mother Nirmala Banerjee is also an economist.
Abdul Latif Poverty Action Labs (J-PAL)
In the year 2003, he established Abdul Latif Poverty Action Labs along with his Nobel Laureate wife Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan aiming to research poverty removal measures. J-PAL conducted 568 ground level experiments or randomized Control Trials (RCTs) in 10 years in India and other countries. It also piloted MNREGA experiments, Pollution control Board Audit in Gujarat and a series of ground-level programs with the Tamil Nadu government.
Other Considerable Acheivements
Apart from that, he was one the consultant economists of Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY), a scheme promised by Congress party in their 2019 Election Manifesto for the poorest 20% of the Indian population.
He also has served as a high-level panelist at UN Secretary-General formed for post-2015 developmental reforms. Infosys rewarded him with the inaugural Infosys Prize for Economics in 2009
He is the co-author of the award-winning book “Poor Economics” penned along with his Economist wife Esther Duflo. The book explores the lives of the economically weakest section of people and revolves around the idea that poverty eradication begins by assessing the daily decisions facing by the poor.
In an interview with NobelPrize.org, he remarked that he has learned an enormous amount from talking people on the ground. He further added, “The set of people I really own an enormous amount to is the people who are….both the people with whom we work with, whose loves we study in many ways, but also the people who work with them.”
He has credited Indian NGOs like Pratham and Seva Mandir for their grass root level work in India and praised that he has learned a lot from these humanitarian organizations.
#MNREGA
#Abhijit Banerjee