Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo to help Andhra Pradesh reach goals

: The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), founded by Nobel Laureate Esther Duflo, an economist, will extend its collaboration with the Andhra Pradesh government to help achieve the target set under the UN sustainable developmental goals.

Duflo and her team interacted with Chief Minister of the State Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy here on Monday and explored ways on working with the government.

We have had a productive engagement with the Chief Minister and been looking forward to collaboration in the future. J-PAL has been working in Andhra Pradesh (on a pilot basis) and we've been looking forward to step up the collaboration, Duflo said in a statement after the meeting.

She said J-PAL has been working in 20 Indian States for the past 15 years.

Duflo, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who won the economics Nobel in 2019 along with two others, said the government has been implementing schemes for the betterment of the poor people.

We have shared some of our own experience. We hope to continue working together towards the shared goal of ending poverty and bettering people's lives, she added.

Later, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma made a presentation to the J-PAL delegation on the initiatives of the government in this regard.