Kolkata born Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee jointly wins Nobel Prize in Economics

Banerjee became the second Indian after Amartya Sen to win the Nobel prize in Economics.

Sen had won it in 1998.

Born in Kolkata, Abhijit Banerjee is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Acknowledging his notable contributions in the field of poverty alleviation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Banerjee on being conferred the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Speaking to NDTV from her home in Kolkata, Abhijit Banerjee's mother Nirmala Banerjee declared, in mock anger, "I haven't spoken to my son (since the award was announced) but I did speak to him last night. He did not mention this then. I will tell him off... he should have told me about it". 

"He is trying to get economics away from theoretical work and trying to use it to understand how people handle poverty and how policy should be shaped to address these problems," she told NDTV.

"They (referring to her son and Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, the other winners of the award) have worked in Africa, South America... Esther worked in Indonesia. They are looking at poverty and are very interested in how local economies overcome this problem," she explained.

She said her son remained an Indian at heart even as he had accepted Ameican citizenship in 2017.

Banerjee is a co-founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (along with economists Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan), a research affiliate of Innovations for Poverty Action, and a member of the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty.

Banerjee was a president of the Bureau for the Research in the Economic Analysis of Development, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, an international research fellow of the Kiel Institute, fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow at the Econometric Society.

Banerjee was born in Kolkata and attended South Point School and Presidency College in the city.

Later, he completed his M.A. in economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in 1983.

He went on to obtain a Ph.D. in economics at Harvard in 1988.

Meanwhile, Indian politicians, which include Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, wished him for the achievement.

Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Hearty congratulations to Abhijit Banerjee, alumnus of South Point School & Presidency College Kolkata, for winning the Nobel Prize in Economics. Another Bengali has done the nation proud. We are overjoyed. জয় হিন্দ । জয় বাংলা ।"

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said: "Big day for every Indian. Heartiest congratulations to eminent economist Abhijit Banerjee for being among the winners of this year’s Nobel prize for Economics. Work on poverty alleviation gets highest endorsement."

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "Congratulations to #AbhijitBanerjee on winning the Nobel Prize in Economics. Abhijit helped conceptualise NYAY that had the power to destroy poverty and boost the Indian economy. Instead we now have Modinomics, that’s destroying the economy and boosting poverty."