VIJAYAWADA: Nobel Laureate and renowned economist Prof Esther Duflo on Monday said she would work with the Andhra Pradesh government, especially with Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, to achieve the common goal of eradicating poverty and ensuring that the people’s problems are addressed at the earliest.
Prof Duflo and her team met the chief minister at his camp office in Tadepalli on Monday. Jagan explained the programmes and schemes implemented by his government in agriculture, education, health, housing and women empowerment. Speaking after the meeting, the Nobel Laureate praised the State government’s welfare programmes.
“We had a productive engagement with the chief minister. It was wonderful to find out about all the great work that is happening. We are looking forward to collaborating on projects in the future,” Prof Duflo said.
The French-American economist also lauded Jagan for taking up a walkathon (Padayatra) to reach out to the people in person, understanding their problems at the grassroots level and then formulating
schemes for the benefit of the people.
“It is commendable to see how the chief minister did not formulate these ideas between four walls, which would make them merely theoretical. The level of detailed knowledge the CM and his team possess is striking. The chief minister has tried to figure out what the people’s needs are, and has completely proposed the schemes towards their needs and the sustainable development goals,” Prof. Duflo said.
Terming the government’s focus on people’s welfare, especially the poor and vulnerable, highly impressive, the economist hoped to work with the government towards achieving the shared goal of ending poverty and making lives better in the State.
“This is just the first conversation. We are getting to know the system and I think there is a lot of interest from both sides for development. Since the CM has made plans keeping in mind the hardships of the people he met during his padayatra, we do not need to focus too much on what needs to be done. We will observe the field and make suggestions for strengthening them,” she added. Prof. Duflo shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics with her husband Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer.
2019 Nobel Prize winner
Prof Esther Duflo shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics with her husband Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer for their research to alleviate poverty. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 1999
Co-founder of J-PAL
She co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). A team from the global research centre is working on a project in AP