CHENNAI: Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, who has won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics jointly with his wife Esther Duflo, was founder of Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), which signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu Planning department in 2014.
Gautam Patel, a senior policy manager at J-PAL South Asia, working to build partnerships with policy-makers in the region to ensure that policy is driven by evidence and effective programmes are scaled up, recalls his association with Banerjee, who is a frequent visitor to India, in one of the projects targeting the ultra poor.
Talking about the Nobel Prize awarded to Banerjee, Esther and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty, Patel says that prize-givers have spent time on why it is important. Jyoti Prasad Mukhopadhyay, who worked with Banerjee recalls that during the two-and-half years working with him as a research associate in a project, he found him passionate about trying to uplift poor.
EPS, OPS & Stalin greet winners
Chennai: CM Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam on Monday congratulated Abhijit Banerjee and his wife Esther Duflo on getting the Nobel Prize for evolving economic policies for poverty alleviation. “On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, I extend wholehearted greetings to you both,” the CM said in his tweet. Panneerselvam in his tweet said the Nobel Laureates had brought honour to India. DMK president MK Stalin tweeted Congratulations to Abhijit Banerjee and his colleagues.