Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee does not deal in abstractions. He speaks of lived realities, quiet urgencies, and ideas that shape how millions navigate everyday life. A Nobel laureate whose work has reshaped global thinking on poverty, policy, and people, Banerjee was in Hyderabad on the concluding day of the Hyderabad Literary Festival, where he took part in two sessions — On Food, Economics and Society and Growth, Governance, and the Poverty Puzzle — both of which drew packed audiences into discussions linking economics with lived experience.
Amid the closing-day bustle, TNIE’s Tejal Sinha spoke to him about inequality, food security, public policy, and the everyday economics that govern ordinary lives.
How do platforms like HLF bring serious economic ideas closer to public understanding?
Economics is too important to be left to economists. Everyone should engage with economic ideas because they shape how we live. Many policies go unchallenged simply because people are not invited into the economic conversation. I am very keen that economics is not discussed only among economists.
On Food, Economics and Society, you spoke about hunger and food security. What is one obvious solution policymakers continue to overlook?
We already have the Public Distribution System (PDS). If food security is defined by grains, most people have access to them. What they lack is protein. The Indian diet is heavily skewed towards starch and away from protein, and that needs to change.
Growth, Governance, and the Poverty Puzzle focused on growth, governance and equity. Where does this triangle most often break down?
We have not created a system to automatically redistribute from the very wealthy. Income distribution is becoming more unequal. To address poverty and run high-quality programmes, we need resources. Improving schools for the poor requires money. Right now, we are running on empty.
Young people are anxious about jobs, inequality and the future. What is their biggest misconception about economic success?
There has been an assumption that success comes from securing good jobs, especially government jobs, through exams. That obsession has held the country back. Government jobs are excellent, but there are fewer per person over time. People spend six years preparing for exams and do nothing else, often entering the labour force only at 27 or 28. This distorts the entire landscape.
There is a perception that rice is affordable, but alternatives are costly. How do you see this?
Millets are not costly. Traditionally, they were cheap. They have become expensive partly because public programmes do not provide price support for millets. This can be changed. There is growing awareness, and policy shifts are possible.
Is there a policy decision that could have transformed millions of lives but failed to happen?
India needs to get out of the trap of free electricity for farmers. Water is overused, and we produce too much rice in Punjab. Farmers are understandably hesitant because they do not trust the government to compensate them adequately. But for the country, this is a trap, and it must be addressed.
With governments nudging people towards market-linked financial instruments, is it right to do so without safeguards?
Our banking sector is highly controlled, which often results in negative real interest rates. We need a balance between the returns available to the affluent through markets and what the average person earns through banks. There has to be a way to offer better returns to ordinary people.