Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee visits alma mater JNU on October 19

Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee visited his alma mater Jawaharlal Nehru University on Saturday. Abhijit Banerjee, who completed his Masters in economics from JNU in 1983, arrived in the university early in the morning and later met Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, sources said.

There was, however, no word from administration officials on his visit.

Abhijit Banerjee gave an interview to a news channel while he was on campus and visited the administration block, the sources said. He also visited the Brahmaputra Hostel. Students said he was present on campus for some time but did not interact much.

While studying in JNU in 1983, Banerjee was among several students who had courted arrest following a standoff with the administration at the time. He was lodged in Tihar for 10 days although charges against him were dropped. Abhijit Banerjee used to participate in debates and discussions on politics during his university days but never ventured into campus electoral politics.

During a phone interview to the Nobel Committee, the Nobel Prize winner said, "I figured it would be an assault to the system if I don't continue my sleep." Asking if he managed to sleep for a reasonable time after the call, Banerjee said, "Yeah, not long. I kept getting calls after a while. Once press conferences happen and news spread to India and Europe, I had no chance. I had a 40-minute interval period where I slept (sic)."  The Nobel Committee released a short four and a half minute clip of the phone call with Banerjee on YouTube. 

"It was very early in the morning. I'm not an early morning person. I figured it would be an assault to the system if I don't continue to sleep," said Abhijit Banerjee. 

Couple Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize with Harvard's Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."

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Awards and honours received by Abhijit Banerjee

2004: Elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

2009: Honoured with the Infosys Prize 2009 in the social sciences category of economics. 

2012: Shared the Gerald Loeb Award Honorable Mention for Business Book with co-author Esther Duflo for their book Poor Economics.

2013: Named by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to a panel of experts tasked with updating the Millennium Development Goals after 2015.

2014: Received Bernhard-Harms-Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

2019: Delivered Export-Import Bank Of India's 34th Commencement Day Annual Lecture on Redesigning Social Policy.

2019: Nobel Prize in Economics, together with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, for their work alleviating global poverty.

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