Amartya Sen

When the figure of literacy is going down and down, when causes of indiscipline and lawlessness are on the increase day after day, when industrial units are closing their doors one after another, the news that Prof. Amartya Sen has won the Nobel Prize in Economics for the year 1998 comes as a shot in the arms of bengal. Every bengali anywhere in the world feels proud on account of his great achievement. Prof. Sen's honour is really a moral-booster for us all, Rabindranath Tagore was the first bengali and the first Indian and the first Asian to win the Nobel prize in Literature in 1913, and Amartya Sen again in 1998 is the first Nobel laureate in Economics.
Amartya Sen was born in November 3, 1933. His father was Ashutosh Sen, an expert in agriculture. His mother, Amita Debi, was a noble lady. He is the grandson of kshiti Mohan Sen, a Sanskrit teacher of Viswabharati. It was Rabindranath who gave him his name. He had his early education at Santiniketan. Then he moved to Presidency College, Kolkata. Finally he became a student of the Cambridge University. He is at present the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a rare honour for anyone. He taught in Jadavpur University (1956-58), Delhi University (1963-71), London School of Economics(1971-77), and Oxford University(1977-80). He has also taught at Harvard as a professor of Economics and Philosophy. He is a great teacher and is very popular with his students. He is really a polite and humble gentleman. Unlike other Indians abroad, he has not severed his connection with his motherland. Nor has he ever applied for any foreign citizenship. Every year he visits Santiniketan during the winter. At that time he does not feel ashamed to put on a dhoti or to ride an old bicycle or to gossip at an ordinary tea-shop.
He has already written eighteen books and earned international recognition as an author. Among his notable books we may mention, Choice of Techniques(1960), Growth Economics(1970), On Economic Inequality(1973), Poverty and famines(1981), Choice, Welfare and Measurement(1982), On Ethics and Economics(1987), The Political Economy of Hunger(1990-91), Economic Development and social Opportunity(1995).
He is joyous because the Nobel Committee has particularly recognised and mentioned his contributions in Welfare Economics which he loves so much. He is not ready to recognise the economic development of India which is the fourth state in the world to go nuclear because its performance in health, education, land-reforms and certain basic requirements is extremely unsatisfactory. Now it to be seen how the indian Govt. makes the best use of his wonderful feats in the field of Welfare Economics. We wish Amartya Sen a long, prosperous, happy and healthy life.

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