Kolkata: Nirmala Banerjee, the mother of Nobel Prize winner Abhijit Banerjee said Monday it was a proud moment for her and she is very happy for her son’s achievements. Nirmala also pointed out that she is happy as one of the joint winners of the Nobel is her daughter-in-law Esther Duflo.
Nirmala Banerjee herself is a former professor of economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences and her husband Dipak Banerjee was a professor and the head of the department of Economics at the then Presidency College (now University).
“I am very happy and proud of his (Abhijit) achievements. I am yet to speak to him. I think he must be sleeping as it’s still night in the US,” Nirmala said. “He was always a brilliant and a disciplined student,” recalled the proud mother.
About her 47-year-old daughter-in-law Esther Duflo, the mother-in-law said, “She is so young and so intelligent.”
Abhijit Banerjee had been educated in South Point School and Presidency College from where he graduated with a BSc in 1981.
After his class 12 examinations Abhijit had initially taken admission in the ‘B Stat’ programme at the famed Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), here but left it midway to study economics at Presidency College as ISI was far from his home, Nirmala stated.
“Physics was also an alternative, but he decided to take up economics,” Nirmala recalled. “He did great work in understanding poverty and how the poor survived. At times we used to discuss various topics and issues on economics. Abhijit has also spoken on economic issues our country is facing presently,” Nirmala pointed out.
PTI