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Thursday, October 15, 1998 |
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CALCUTTA, Oct 14 (PTI) Professor Amartya Sen, who became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Economics today, has won acclaim as "conscience keeper" of the world of economics by probing into ethical and philosophical questions relating to inequality and causes of poverty and famine. Sixtyfour-year-old Sen, who became a Professor in Jadhavpur University at just 24, was a strong votary of social development and felt market reforms had no meaning without it. Sen was candid about Indias economic reforms and felt that despite overall economic growth, there was evidence that economic expansion was not reaching the least fortunate in society. Educated at Presidency College in Calcutta, Sen went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he acquired his bachelors and masters degrees and doctorate. During his stint at Trinity, he won the prestigious Adam Smith Prize, Wrenbury Scholarship and Stevenson Prize. He later went onto to become Master of Trinity College, a prestigous post. A versatile economist, Sens prolific writings ranged from choice of technique, poverty, famine and inequality, analysing causes of famine and starvation, Sen demonstrated that traditional analysis focussing on food supply is "theoritically defective, empirically inept and dangerously misleading" in terms of policy. One of the most dramatic findings of Amartya Sens research relates to the devastating consequences of inequality between men and women. Sen came up with a startling figure of hundred million missing women, killed as it were by discrimination on account of less food and medical care as compared to boys and men. Sens work on poverty and famines led to the construction of the "poverty line", a measure widely used by the United Nations and other development agencies to determine the level of poverty in a particular country. Betwen his high profile international assignments, Sen returned to India in 1963 to teach at the Delhi School of Economics for about nine years. This was his last teaching stint in India. His path-breaking publication Choice of Techniques was the first to delineate the case which many developing countries faced, whether to adopt labour intensive or capital intensive techniques for development. In his illustrous career spanning three decades, Sen held several prestigious posts, including presidentship of the American Economic Association and the International Economic Association. He was also a member of the editorial boards of reputed journals like Economica, Economics and Philosophy. |
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