File photo of Bibek Debroy, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council | Photo credit: PTI
Renowned author and economist Bibek Debroy, who served as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council since 2017, passed away on Friday (November 1, 2024) at the age of 69.
Mr Debroy was also a member of the Niti Aayog, which had replaced the erstwhile Planning Commission until mid-2019, and had broad interests beyond economics. He was also a Sanskrit scholar who had translated the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata into English; and worked on a project to also translate the Puranas, which remained incomplete.
The veteran economist, who had been ill for a few weeks, was admitted to the AIIMS emergency around 10 pm on Thursday. Hospital sources said he had a “subacute intestinal obstruction” and died at 7am on Friday. Political leaders from across the political spectrum paid lofty tributes to Mr Debroy, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoling Modi’s passing by saying that “he left an indelible mark on India’s intellectual landscape”.
“Dr. Bibek Debroy Ji was a leading scholar, well versed in various fields such as economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality and more. With his works he has left an indelible mark on the intellectual landscape of India. Besides his contributions to public policy, he enjoyed working on our ancient texts, making them accessible to the youth,” Mr. Modi wrote on X.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called Mr Debroy “a man of unusually broad interests” who was “primarily an outstanding theoretical and empirical economist who worked and wrote on various aspects of the Indian economy”.
President Droupadi Murmu said the country has lost a leading public intellectual and called Mr Debroy’s understanding of India’s social, cultural and economic landscape “exceptional”.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted that Mr Debroy “participated exuberantly in policymaking”. “His interests included: ancient texts, Vedic and classical Sanskrit, Devi, Railways. He was prolific in translating Sanskrit into English – our epics and puranas. His book Sarama and her children showed his uncanny talent in extracting nuggets from our ancient texts. Bibek, you had so much more to do and complete – for all of us!” wrote Ms Sitharaman.
Warm, affable and erudite, Mr. Debroy remained a prolific author and columnist even after joining the Niti Aayog, and continued to shed light on an eclectic variety of issues, including but not limited to arcane and archaic legislation, and history and history of Indian Railways. operational nuances. In his recent public speeches, Mr. Debroy had emphasized the need for the country to quickly conduct the census, which was already several years overdue, and to re-examine key economic measures, including the definition of the poverty line.
Early years and career
After his education at Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur, Mr. Debroy had studied at Presidency College, Kolkata, followed by Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge. Starting with a teaching stint at his alma mater Presidency College, Mr Debroy had worked at the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune, followed by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in the national capital.
The economist also spent a year at the Finance Ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs in the mid-1990s, but one of his longest-serving positions was the directorship of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS) between 1997 and 2005.
At RGICS, the think tank affiliated with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, a report led by Mr Debroy and published in 2005 had caused a stir in the first year of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA regime by naming Gujarat, which was then under Chief Minister stood. Narendra Modi, as India’s top state on an index to measure economic freedom.
This had led to a prolonged and heated debate on the Gujarat development model, and amid unrest in the Congress ranks over the report, Mr Debroy eventually moved on to the Punjab Haryana Delhi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI). A two-year stint at the industry body was followed by a long stint at the Center for Policy and Research from 2007 until he became part of the Centre’s think tank after Mr Modi’s government took office in 2014.
Well-known author and economist Bibek Debroy no longer
Mr. Ramesh recalled that Mr. Debroy had a special knack for lucid explanations, which helped laypeople understand complex economic issues with ease. “Bibek was also a highly prolific and always thought-provoking media commentator on public issues far beyond economics. In fact, he will be remembered as a true Sanskritist of great erudition,” said Mr Ramesh, calling his translations of some important late 19th century essays into Bengali “remarkable”. “He will be missed for his scholarship and for his dry sense of humor,” he summarized.
(With inputs from Bindu Shajan Perappadan)
Published – Nov 1, 2024 11:07 AM IST
