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Tag: Abhijit Banerjee

  • Time of extreme pain in India, economy below 2019 levels: Abhijit Banerjee

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: People in India are in “extreme pain” and the economy is still below the 2019 levels, Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee said on Saturday.

    He was virtually addressing students of Ahmedabad University during the varsity’s 11th annual convocation which was also held online.

    Sharing his observations from a recent visit to West Bengal, Banerjee, speaking from the US, said “small aspirations” of people have become even smaller now.

    “You (students) are in a place where you can give back. Society really needs it. We are in a time of extreme pain in India.”

    “I just spent some time in rural West Bengal and stories you hear about, you know, all the aspirations that have been a little bit dashed are very real small aspirations which became smaller now,” he said.

    “I think that we are in a moment of great pain. The economy is still well below as against what it was in 2019,” Banerjee said.”

    “We don’t know how much below, but it is substantially below. And I am not blaming anybody, I am just saying,” said the economist who won the Nobel Prize along with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer in 2019.

    He also urged the students not to succumb to pressure from family or society in choosing their career paths, but have the “courage” to do what they really want to do in life.

    He also informed the audience that he had spent 10 days in Tihar jail during his student days at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

    “When I was about to leave JNU and go to Harvard, I was in a student demonstration and then I was taken to Tihar jail, and kept there for ten days. When I came out, lots of elders told me that I have ruined my career, and Harvard or the US will never let you in. They thought I should be regretful,” he said.

    To make his point about choosing careers, Banerjee pointed out that two of India’s great film-makers – Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal – were economics graduates but chose to walk a different path.

    “Yet, they did fine in life. So, instead of specific training, what is really important is that you are a lively, thoughtful and open human being. That’s the most important part,” he said.

    During the convocation, 833 students, including four doctoral students, of the private varsity were conferred degrees.

  • COVID third wave may pull GDP growth down to 7 per cent: Economist Abhijit Banerjee

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee on Thursday apprehended that the impending third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic might adversely impact the GDP, and its growth rate might go down to 7 per cent, even below the IMF’s recent projection of 9.5 per cent.

    Banerjee, who heads West Bengal’s Global Advisory Board (GAB) and advises the state government on issues related to the pandemic, said that boosting the state’s economy is directly related to the revival of the country’s economy as it is under stress due to the ongoing pandemic situation.

    “The economy is going slow due to the COVID situation. Earlier the IMF had said GDP growth would be 12.5 per cent. Now it is saying it would be 9.5 per cent. I apprehend it might go down to 7 per cent. Another wave will decrease it further. If the country’s economy does not improve, the state will not be able to move forward alone,” he said.

    Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its economic growth forecast for India to 9.5 per cent for the fiscal year to March 31, 2022, as the onset of a severe second COVID-19 wave cut into recovery momentum.

    This forecast for 2021-22 is lower than the 12.5 per cent growth in GDP that IMF had projected in April before the second wave took a grip.

    For 2022-23, IMF expects economic growth of 8.5 per cent, higher than the 6.9 per cent it had projected in April.

    “The economy of Bengal is also connected with the country. If the country’s economy does not improve, Bengal alone will not be able to do anything. If the economy of the whole country is active, it will have an impact.

    “Many Bengalis work in other states. A lot of income comes from migrants. We cannot solve this problem alone. When the country’s economy opens, that will pull us.

    The state government is certainly trying to help, but the problem will be solved only when the country’s economy recovers,” Banerjee said.

    The noted economist that the Centre should be more into free-spending policies like other economies of Europe and the US rather than being more concerned about balancing the deficit and the budget.

    “The (union) government has a fiscal problem, and it may have more faith in balancing the budget than free-spending policies.

    The government is trying to use the one instrument it has as other forms of tax collection are not necessarily keeping pace, given the economy is slow.

    It is using this to balance the budget,” he said when asked to react to the Centre’s decision to increase cess on various items, including fuel, from time to time in the last year.

    But this is not the direction the government should not have taken, Banerjee said.

    “I think the government should have been more open-handed with the spending. I have said this many, many times. I think the central government is too unwilling to do what US or European economies are doing – printing money and spending.

    And I think that would have been a better policy in the present context,” the economist said.

    Banerjee, however, praised the Centre for now moving in that direction.

    “The inflation is already up due to the high fuel prices. I think there is a good case for being more open-handed. But to be fair, the central government has now moved towards that direction and have announced several relaxations. I think being less mindful of the deficit might be the right strategy,” the Nobel laureate said.

  • Need to redesign welfare system to meet challenge of pandemics: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee

    By PTI
    JODHPUR: The Covid pandemic has paved the way for learning many lessons with regard to the country’s health situation and preparedness in general as well as highlighted the need to redesign welfare systems, Noble laureate and renowned economist Abhijit Banerjee said on Sunday.

    While addressing a webinar organised by the city-based National Institute for Implementation Research on Non-Communicable Diseases, Banerjee focused on the economic aspect of the country’s health situation, welfare and healthcare systems.

    On the economic aspect of the health situation, he said that India has a large population afflicted with lifestyle diseases, which are non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

    “Many young people died in the second and first wave of the pandemic, but their conditions were not detected.

    Causalities among the young has caught us without any clue,” the economist said, terming awareness about NCDs a key challenge.

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    Banerjee also said that the welfare system of the country has not been designed for a pandemic and stressed on the need for redesigning the welfare mechanism to deal with such situations in the future.

    The webinar was organised by the institute on its foundation day and Banerjee was chief gusted for the virtual event.

    Speaking on different aspects of the healthcare system of the country, the noble laureate highlighted multiple consequences of medical practitioners without any qualification (quacks) and indiscriminate and spontaneous use of steroids and their availability.

    Citing a study, he said, “In West Bengal, underweight women frequently take steroids to put on weight for marriage and these steroids are easily available at a local grocer.”

    Terming the practice by quacks in rural areas a fully open phenomena, Banerjee said that there was no enforcement to address this issue and this has triggered a general culture of “abusive medicine”.

    “Our healthcare system is being handled by those who are left out of the healthcare system,” he said.

    The noble laureate also highlighted the issue of over-prescribing of medicines for very normal ailments.

    While talking about the public healthcare system, he claimed that sub-centres are empty and nurses are mostly not available, which pushes people to visit quacks.

    “While an average time given by an MBBS doctor to a patient is about two minutes, quacks give adequate time to them hearing their problems,” he claimed and argued that this was a likely condition forcing patients go to quacks.

    Taking a dig at the consumerist culture towards medicine, Banerjee stressed on the need of development of a preventive culture instead of a curative culture.

    “We are exposed to demand of medicines. We go to the doctor and tell him ‘Kuchh to de do (give us something)’, when he is disinclined to prescribe medicines,” he said.

    There is a need to build a mechanism for prevention and get people aware about it, Banerjee said.

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