ABHIJIT Banerjee Calls On PM Modi
Indian-American Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee on Tuesday, October 22 met Prime Minster Narendra Modi in his residence in New Delhi. Kolkata born Abhijit shares the Nobel Prize for economics with his French-American wife, Esther Dufio and American economist Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. He is currently Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).He was also one of the economists who helped Congress develop its 2019 Lok Sabha election promise of the NYAY scheme. In its 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto, the party had promised to pay INR 12, 000 every month to each BPL family under the scheme if it came to power. The alumnus of Calcutta University, JNU and Harvard had also worked on a project in Gujarat when Modi was Chief Minister of the Western state. In a recent TV interview, he had expressed reservation about the effectiveness of the Nay scheme. He later visited his 83 years old mother in Kolkata. After the meet, PM Modi has tweeted “Excellent meeting with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee. His passion towards human empowerment is clearly visible. We had a healthy and extensive interaction on various subjects. India is proud of his accomplishments. Wishing him the very best for his future endeavours”. India Today reports Dr Banerjee visited his alma mater Jawaharlal Nehru University on Saturday, October 19, 2019. He completed his Masters in economics from JNU in 1983.He also met Vice-Chancellor M Jagdish Kumar, sources said. In a TV interview, Dr Banerjee also spoke in favour of utilising direct taxes for funding welfare schemes as compared to the indirect taxes. Nobel Prize winner also said that he “liked” the idea of Ayushman Bharat scheme that aims to help economically vulnerable Indians who are in need of healthcare facilities.”When people end up paying a lot for health care, they are forced to sell off their assets,” he added. He, however, also cautioned about the potential of fraud in the scheme and said that the same needs to be fixed.
