Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee Won Nobel Prize in Economics

Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee Won Nobel Prize in Economics

Since the day of its inception, the Nobel Prize for economics has been given every single year. This year, an Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer was awarded with this prestigious award. Duflo and Banerjee are married to each other from the last four years and they are the first couple to win a Nobel Prize in economics and overall sixth couple to win Nobel Prizes.

Banerjee and Duflo are professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kremer teaches at Harvard University. They have improved strategies to fight global poverty by breaking big problems into small and actionable steps.

Banerjee is the second Indian and Duflo being the second woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics was congratulated by PM Modi, FM Nirmala Sitharaman, CMs Arvind Kejriwal and Mamta Banerjee and many political leaders around the world. Former Nobel Prize winner in economics, Amartya Sen also congratulated him.

Global Attention from the First Book

Work of Banerjee and Duflo was first getting global attention in 2011 from their book, Poor Economics. In that book, they have mentioned that instead of thinking poor as a cartoon character, we need to understand the complexity of their life. They have also mentioned topics like why poor can invest in education of only one child and not others and why farmers are unwilling to use modern farming methods. As they were focusing on small details they brought the attention of the world to them.

Banerjee with Paul Krugman who is a Nobel laureate and former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian was a member of the panel in which global, as well as Indian economies, were discussed under the supervision of global business summit.

Words on Indian Issues

Banerjee has spoken on various issues that India is currently facing. After it was announced that he will be getting the Nobel Prize he speaks to CNBC-TV 18 that economy of India is on shaky ground and the hope for its revival is uncertain.

Heavy Maths

Before Banerjee started working on the development of the economy, he was a maths geek during his college days. When he was perusing his postgrads from Harvard he was called as "quant" by his fellow mates which is a term used for the mathematically gifted one.

His college mate G Sreekumar in JNU who is now the banking supervision adviser for the international monetary fund said that Abhijit was a legend in many ways as it was very easy for him to solve complex problems with ease. He further added that he was never a nerd as he was a fun guy and has a keen interest in classical music and many intellectual things.

Witty Sense of Humour

Unlike other economists, Banerjee and Duflo have a witty sense of humour as they can laugh at their profession. In their new book "Make Economics Great Again" they have mentioned a joke where a woman told a doctor that she is going to live only for six months. The doctor advised her to make her half-year seems longer she should move to South Dakota (According to a survey this is the most boring American state) and marry an economist.

See what influential people talk about.

Do you know the best investment agencies in India?