Abhijit Sen

1. In 1981, Abhijit Sen completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge with a thesis dissecting India's agrarian constraints, setting the stage for his future work on rural economics.

2. 🌾 From 1997, as chairperson of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Sen revolutionized Minimum Support Price calculations by including indirect costs like unpaid family labor and land rent, influencing the 50%+ cost markup in the Swaminathan Formula.

3. 🎯 Between 2004 and 2014, Sen served two terms on India’s Planning Commission, where he pushed for a universal Public Distribution System (PDS) that avoided poverty line categorization, aiming to streamline food security.

4. 🏛️ Sen’s 2000 report on Long-Term Grain Policy argued for expanding the PDS universally, challenging World Bank proposals for cash transfers and advocating for government interventions to reduce food insecurity.

5. As a teacher at Jawaharlal Nehru University from 1985 onward, Sen nurtured critical thinking in economics, encouraging dissent and independent thought among students while maintaining a pragmatic connection to rural realities.

6. Sen’s critique of the 2019 scrapping of India’s Consumption Expenditure Survey underscored his demand for data transparency, highlighting his commitment to informed policymaking even in controversial moments.

7. ❓ How did Abhijit Sen balance rigorous economic analysis with grassroots realities to challenge both left and right economic dogmas in India’s policymaking landscape?