The prestigious Presidency University in Kolkata said on Monday that it is a proud moment for the institute that Abhijit Binayak Banerjee, one of its alumni and mentor group members, is a joint winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics. “Presidency University feels happy that two of its alumni members, both stalwarts in Economics - Amartya Sen and now Banerjee have been chosen for the Nobel in Economics,” University registrar Debajyoti Konar said.
"The entire Presidency family feels immensely proud for Banerjee who has jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize along with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer," Konar said. He said Banerjee had been a member of the Presidency University mentor group and has always offered us valuable suggestions for the economics department."
Banerjee, he said, had last visited Presidency in 2018. “Whenever he visits Kolkata he makes it a point to visit his alma mater with which he is still associated", according to Konar. He will be felicitated in a befitting manner when the institute reopens after Durga Puja vacation, Konar added.
Banerjee, 58, was educated at the University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Harvard University where he received his Ph.D in 1988. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to his profile on the MIT website. Abhijit Banerjee is the third Bangla-speaking man to get the Nobel award after Rabindranath Tagore and another economist Amartya Sen.
