Abhijit Banerjee conferred D Litt by alma mater

Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee was on Tuesday conferred the honorary D Litt by his alma mater Calcutta University at its annual convocation here.

The acclaimed economist, who was bestowed the D Litt (honoris causa) by CU Vice-chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee, said in his address "It is a moment of pride....to be bestowed the honour by this great university. I am happy to have been honoured by the 162-year old institution located in my own city".

Banerjee had pursued his graduation with economics honours from the then Presidency College, now university, and secured first class first rank in Calcutta University in 1981.

The VC said, "Prof Banerjee comes in a long lineage of Bengali and Indian intellectuals who have placed the ethical problem of poverty and inequality at the centre of their vision. We hope that our present and future students will carry this legacy forward to create a more equal society".

Speaking at the programme, Banerjee dwelt on his economics theory 'randomised control trials' (RCT) which involves carrying out randomized field experiments to study the effectiveness of policies and programmes at improving human well-being.

The objective of RCT is to see how it impacts economics and lives of the people, he said, adding the theory was put on trial in field projects in Rajasthan and Bihar in past.

Eminent astrophysicist J V Narlikar was conferred Sir Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Medal. Scientists Samir K Brahmachari, Arup Kumar Raychaudhuri and Partha Pratim Majumder were bestowed the Sir Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray Medal.