From Amartya to Abhijit: How India has changed in the last two decades

In the last two decades, not only have the Indian society and politics changed - becoming more narrow and less catholic, the economists too have changed in a significant way

Twenty one years ago, the Nobel prize for economics had gone to a man from India. That was Amartya Sen in 1998. And now Abhijit Banerjee, also from India, achieves a similar feat. Just about two decades separate the two events. Yet, it seems that India of today is significantly different from what it was then. Nothing captures that change more tellingly than the way India’s ruling establishment had responded to the award to Dr Sen in 1998 and the way a few senior ruling party leaders have responded to the same award to Dr Banerjee. 

There was unequivocal and