Abhijit's Nobel and the challenges ahead

The fruition of Nobel's hope lies in the response of a caring government that can rise above politics and propaganda

The surge of pride at Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee’s achievement is instinctive. But going beyond parochial loyalty, ignoring political carping, and without at all diminishing what the nine India-connected laureates, including six from Bengal, have accomplished, only two seem to me to have served the Nobel ideal of recognising and rewarding “those who conferred the greatest benefit on humankind”. They are Ronald Ross, who established how malaria spreads, and Kailash Satyarthi, who tried to stop child exploitation. 

But let me first repeat an anecdote about another Nobel laureate even though the story hasn’t made me any friends. Some 40 years ago, Doordarshan