Nobel winner Abhijit Banerjee supporting two poor students to get education

Indian-American economist Abhijit Banerjee, who earlier this week won the prestigious Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, has kept on supporting the education of two less unfortunate children at a school here in Jogiwala.

Aryan Thapa and Aman Dobryal, students of the Vivekanand School in Dehradun, have been receiving the Kabir Memorial Scholarship, set up by Banerjee in remembrance of his son who died an untimely death, for the past three years.

The two children, who were helped by the Nobel winner's generosity were all praises for him and thanked him for helping them in gaining education.

"I want to thank him from the core of my heart for providing us the means to continue our education. I also would like to congratulate sir for winning the Nobel prize," Aryan Thapa told ANI here.

Similarly, Aman Dobryal too expressed happiness at Banerjee's win and said, "I met Abhijit Ji in 2015 here, and he has kept on helping me throughout in my education. I thank him for everything he has done for us and congratulate him on his Nobel win. We are very happy for him."

Banerjee has a long term connection with the Vivekanand School, as one of its founder members, Gauri Majumdar had not only been his teacher in his formative years at the South Point School in Kolkata but had also been his mother's classmate.

Gauri Majumdar's late husband Tapas Majumdar had also taught Abhijit Banerjee during his time at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Banerjee, was, therefore, more than willing to donate money to the school to set up a scholarship fund for the less privileged children when Gauri Majumdar got in touch with him through his mother.

Banerjee, his French-American wife Esther Duflo and the US' Michael Kremer on Monday were awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty" on Monday.

Banerjee completed his MA in Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in 1983. Later, he went on to obtain a PhD in Economics at Harvard University in 1988.

The 58-year-old Kolkata-born economist is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He joined the select list of Indians or persons of Indian origin who have been awarded the Nobel Prize.