Times Of India
Thursday 15 October 1998

Amartya Sen gets Nobel Prize for economics

LONDON: Dr Amartya Sen, who took economics to heights of philosophy with his stress on welfare was chosen on Wednesday for this year's Nobel Prize.

With the recognition for his contribution to welfare economics, Dr Sen, 64, master of Trinity College at Cambridge University, becomes the sixth Indian to get the Nobel Prize and the first Asian to merit it for economics. He is also the first solo winner of the prize for economics since 1995.

Announcing the award in Stockholm, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science said Dr Sen was chosen for his contribution to welfare economics. ``His contribution ranged from axiomatic theory of social choice over definitions of welfare and poverty indexes, to empirical studies of famine,'' the citation by the Academy said.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said the country was proud of the achievement of Dr Amartya Sen winning the Nobel Prize. ``The country is proud of your achievement,'' Mr Vajpayee said in a message expressing his profound sense of joy.

President K R Narayanan expressed pride and joy over the conferment, felicitating Dr Sen on this ``well-merited honour''. He wished Dr Sen many more years of purposeful activity and achievements.

Dr Amartya Sen, when contacted in New York, said he was very pleased to have been chosen for the Nobel Prize, particularly because the subject for which he has been honoured, welfare economics, touches the lives of people. Besides personal recognition, it is also recognition for the subject which affects people ``those doing well as well as those doing badly'', Dr Sen said.
Asked if he thought this was an honour for India, he said: ``I don't know that. There are many Indians who have received the Nobel Prize. There are many honours and this is one. What pleases me most is that the subject has received recognition.''

Dr Sen heard about the prestigious award when he received a call at 4.00 am (New York time) in his hotel room. ``I thought there was some emergency when the phone rang,'' he laughingly said. With his characteristic humility, he noted that many economists had worked on the subject and ``it is a tragedy we can't all share the award''.

Dr Sen said he was thrilled mainly because the subject he explores, welfare economics, deserves more recognition. ``I was surprised and quite pleased when I got the call from the Royal Academy. But I was even more pleased when they told me the subject matter was welfare economics.''

In Santiniketan, after several nominations and refusals from the Royal Swedish Academy for Science, Amartya Sen's selection for the Nobel has come as a surprise to his mother Amita Sen.
``When he called me earlier in the day to give the news, I told him I am not going to discuss this with anyone unless I see it in the newspapers tomorrow. Bablu (Amartya's pet name) laughed and told me this time the news is real,'' she said.

The octogenarian, initially not very forthcoming with comments, was convinced only after the agency dispatch from Stockholm was read out to her. ``I don't know what to say. So many things are coming to my mind. Obviously I am extremely happy.''

Dr Sen will be presented with a medal and a cheque for 7.6 million Swedish Kronor ($ 938,000) at an official ceremony in Stockholm on December 10 - the 102nd death anniversary of founder of the prizes Alfred Nobel.

Born on November 3, 1933, at Santiniketan founded by another Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Mr Sen has retained Indian citizenship despite his long stay abroad as a professor.

He has taught in India and various universities abroad, including Harvard, Oxford and London School of Economics.

Dr Sen had been in the reckoning for the Nobel Prize for several years and many of his admirers felt he had been overlooked so far because of his outspoken criticism of the western model of economic growth which he felt had fallen short of achieving the welfare of the poor. His works are notable for a keen interest in how resources are distributed in society, with a focus on the poorest members, the citation said.

Dr Sen's studies on famine in India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Saharan countries found that shortage of food was not always the cause of such a catastrophe, it said. ``By analysing the available information about different individuals' welfare when collective decisions are made he has improved the theoretical foundation for comparing different distributions of society's welfare and defined new and more satisfactory indexes of poverty,'' the Swedish Academy said.
``In empirical studies, Dr Sen's applications of his theoretical approach have enhanced our understanding of the economic mechanisms underlying famines,'' the citation said.

Many economists consider Dr Sen as a Left-wing professor who, however, pursued an independent line of study. From the start of his career, Dr Sen showed a ``particular interest in the most impoverished members of society,'' the Swedish Academy said. He was praised by the group of jurors for the prize for his human approach to the dry and detached realm of economic studies. ``By combining tools from economics and philosophy he has restored an ethical dimension to the discussion of vital economic problems,'' the citation said.

Author of over a dozen books, Dr Sen's best known works include Collective choice and social welfare published in 1970 and Poverty and famines published in 1981. The latter book challenged the popular notion that the shortage of food was the most important cause of famine and showed that other factors also contributed to it and that the catastrophe could occur even without any significant drop in supplies of food articles.

Finance minister Yashwant Sinha congratulated Dr Sen on winning the coveted prize and hailed his contribution to welfare economics and his works on poverty and famine.
Meanwhile, economists nationwide hailed Dr Sen's achievement saying he had done ``India proud, though such recognition was long overdue''.

Chief economic adviser to the finance ministry, Dr Shankar Acharya, termed it as ``absolutely wonderful news'' saying the most important thing was that he was the first Indian to have won the Nobel Prize for economics.

Planning Commission member and former finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia said he was delighted by the ``wonderful news ''. He has contributed to a wide range of economic theories and has stressed the importance of social sector development as part of economic reforms. He categorically said only market oriented reforms may not be sufficient and major investments in social sector development were required.

Dr Arjun Sengupta, former member, Planning Commission, said Dr Sen is the most deserving candidate who should have got the award long back. ``He is a genius whose total span of scholarship and inspiring leadership covers not only the philosophy, art, culture but has produced generation of students both in India and West....I am sure quite a few of them would get the Nobel Prize in future,'' he said.

Educated at Presidency College in Calcutta, Dr 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 became master of Trinity College, a prestigious post.(Agencies)