Indian economy on a shaky ground, says Nobel awardee Abhijit Banerjee

Current data not assuring revival any time soon: Abhijit Banerjee

Mumbai: December 10, 2018: Abhijit Banerjee, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology delivering his lecture at the 7th C. K. Prahalad Memorial Lecture "Can India Keep Growing" at Asiatic Library Hall in Mumbai on Tuesday. Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, who on Monday won the 2019 Nobel for Economics, said Indian economy was on shaky ground.

The data currently available do not hold any assurance for the country’s economic revival anytime soon, he stated.

“The condition of the Indian economy is on shaky ground. After witnessing the present [growth] data, just can’t be sure about it [revival of economy in the near future]. In the last five-six years, we could at least witness some growth, but now that assurance is also gone,” Mr. Banerjee told a news channel from the U.S.

 

The 58-year-old economist, who bagged the coveted prize jointly with his wife Esther Duflo and another economist Michael Kremer for his “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”, said he never thought he would get a Nobel so early in his career.

“I have been doing this research for the last twenty years. We have tried offering solutions towards alleviation of poverty,” Mr. Banerjee, who is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said.