Abhijit Banerjee

Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee has warned that political polarisation in India is eroding transparency and making the country a "mystery" for global investors, even as the growth numbers remained robust. In an interview with PTI, Banerjee said from an economic standpoint, the most critical issues confronting the country today were media freedom and transparency, arguing that investors ultimately cared about data credibility rather than political rhetoric. "I think India is going through a politically polarised phase in the sense that there are many conflicts that have existed for a long time, and we have to decide, as a nation, to what extent we want to be seen as open and reliable. I think the real issues have to do with media freedom," he said. "The most important issues are media freedom and transparency. Do we really know what the numbers are? That's what investors care about," Banerjee said. While India has continued to attract foreign investment, he described the .

Nobel laureate economist Prof Abhijit Banerjee on Saturday met Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy here and discussed several innovative ideas in urban development, economic growth, augmenting public revenues, fiscal discipline, large-scale skilling and jobs creation. The Nobel laureate also accepted the invitation from the chief minister to join the illustrious and globally renowned list of advisors of the 'Telangana Rising' vision board, an official release said. The Telangana government's vision of growth, investments, job creation, building great infrastructure and welfare for all sections is described as 'Telangana Rising'. While discussing mass-scale job creation, Banerjee spoke of the need to create unique short-term courses in traditional skills with modern design and appeal, marketing, use of social media technology to help traditional artisans turn into modern entrepreneurs, it said. He also suggested to the CM to include crafts, arts and creativity as a significant

The current and evolving situation in Bangladesh is unlikely to trigger a fresh round of exodus of minority Hindus into India, Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee said. Historically, the academic explained, migration is mainly driven by social networks and economic opportunities, rather than persecution, even in the context of the crisis faced by minorities in Bangladesh. Speaking exclusively to PTI during his recent visit to the city to participate in a curtain-raiser event of the 16th edition of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, where his latest title Chhaunk: On Food, Economics and Society' was launched, Banerjee said he felt India's "explicit political preference for Hindu migrants from Bangladesh" is what prompted the population to leave their homeland in the past, rather than the attacks on the community. "People always leave for another country where they have their families or to a richer nation where the economic opportunities are higher," the Nobel laureate said

The TMC is leading in 30 of the 42 constituencies in West Bengal, according to early trends in 2024 Lok Sabha election results

West Bengal Nobel Laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee said it is not a new phenomenon that inefficient teachers have penetrated the education system over multi-crore teachers' recruitment scam in WB

Noting that temporary school closures will cause permanent damage, he said merely reopening schools will not be enough

The Nobel laureate was sharing his observations from a recent visit to West Bengal.

India should not take the drop in its Global Hunger Index ranking "seriously" as the methodology used for the exercise is 'model-based' and not survey-based, Banerjee said

Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee on Thursday apprehended that the impending third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic might adversely impact the GDP

Banerjee heads West Bengal's Global Advisory Board (GAB) and advises the state government on issues related to the pandemic

Nobel Laureate says it is 'not clear at all' if bond markets would react negatively to moves to avert crisis.

Leaders and scientists need to figure out what should be done to combat variants of the virus.

Banerjee tells Anjuli Bhargava he wants the world to have the right conversations before marching on in its battle against extreme poverty

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

There is evidence to show that enough people don't know about the benefits of education, says Banerjee

He, however, said that the country will see a revival in growth in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal

One argument that is cited against UBI is that it may generate laziness. The experiment is Kenya, quoted by Abhijit Banerjee and Bardhan, shows that it does not

"India plans to spend less than one per cent of its GDP at Rs 1.70 trillion. We should spend a much-increased proportion of GDP," he said

Economist and former RBI Governor, Raghuram Rajan had a similar interaction with Gandhi last week

Abhijit Banerjee pointed out several measures, including giving temporary ration cards, a bigger stimulus package and providing cash to India's poorest 60% to revive the Covid-19-hit economy