Abhijit Sen, eminent economist, passed away on August 29 at the age of 71. He retired as Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP), Jawaharlal Nehru University, in 2015. During his association with the university, which spanned a period of more than three decades, Prof. Sen made remarkable contributions to the rural and agricultural sector of the country in various capacities and carved his own space through his clarity of thought, ideas and conviction. As an economist, a teacher and a policy-maker, he was able to successfully straddle the theory of agriculture and rural development with empirics and policy-making with remarkable expertise and ease.
Prof. Sen was not a policy-maker or a theorist who was disconnected from the ground-level realities; he had a thorough understanding of the grass-root level problems embedded in the rural and agricultural sector. His deep understanding of the functioning of the rural and agricultural sector with sharp data analytical skills manifested in the form of unique policy insights and recommendations. For instance, he believed and argued that government intervention was not only desirable, but also often necessary. According to him, government intervention was essential to arrive at solutions to several pertinent issues that the sector was encountering, such as poor agricultural productivity.
Also read: Remembering Abhijit Sen, who made seminal contributions to understanding Indian economic issues
