GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 30th August. Abhijit Sen, an economist and former Planning Commission member who was one of the country’s foremost experts on rural economy, died on Monday night. He was 72.
“He suffered a heart attack around 11 PM. We rushed him to the hospital, but it was all over by the time we got there,” said his brother, Dr. Pronab Sen.
Prof Abhijit Sen spent more than four decades teaching economics at Oxford, Cambridge, and New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, as well as holding several important government positions, including chair of the Commission of Agricultural Cost and Prices.
He served on the Planning Commission from 2004 to 2014, during Manmohan Singh’s tenure as Prime Minister.
He received the Padma Bhusan for public service in 2010.
Sen was appointed to lead a high-level task force to develop a long-term grain policy when the NDA came to power in 2014. Sen was a strong supporter of a universal public rice and wheat distribution system.
He would argue that the fiscal burden of food subsidies was frequently exaggerated, and that the country had enough fiscal headroom to not only support a universal PDS, but also to guarantee farmers a fair price for their produce.
Sen has also worked with several global research and multilateral organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the OECD Development Centre.
Sen, whose father Samar Sen was a World Bank economist, studied physics at New Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College before transferring to Cambridge University to pursue a doctorate in economics.
Sen had been suffering from breathing problems for years, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his brother, Pronab.
He is survived by his wife, Jayati Ghosh, a well-known economist, and their daughter Jahnavi.
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