'India Is Proud Of His Accomplishments': PM Modi After Meeting Abhijit Banerjee

Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and held a "healthy and extensive" interaction on various subjects.

“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,” Modi tweeted after meeting with Banerjee.

Banerjee said the PM talked about his way of thinking about India. “It was a privilege to have this meeting with the PM. The PM was kind enough to give me quite a lot of time and to talk a lot about his way of thinking about India which was quite unique because one hears about policies but one rarely hears about the thinking behind it,” he said.

“He talked about the way he sees governance in particular….He also explained how he’s trying to reform the bureaucracy to make it more responsive to understand ways in which people’s views need to be taken into account,” the 58-year-old Nobel laureate said after the meeting.

Banerjee, an Indian-born American professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was awarded the Nobel jointly with his wife Esther Duflo and another economist Michael Kremer for his "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".

In a recent interview to a news channel, Banerjee said Indian economy is on a shaky ground.

"The condition of Indian economy is on a shaky ground. After witnessing the present (growth) data, just can't be sure about it (revival of economy in near future).

"In the last five-six years, at least we could witness some growth, but now that assurance is also gone," Banerjee told a news channel from the US.

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