Economics Nobel Winner Abhijit Banerjee Had Suggested NYAY Scheme To Congress

Remember Rahul Gandhi’s NYAY scheme, which he had promised to implement if his party Congress wins the 2019 Lok Sabha elections? Well the scheme might have failed to garner enough votes for him but it was suggested by 2019 Economics Nobel winner Abhijit Banerjee, one of the best economists in the world at the moment.

Banerjee, along with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer jointly won the 2019 Nobel economics prize "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty." A Professor of Economics at MIT, the Indian-born economists had suggested a minimum income guarantee of Rs 2,500 per month, keeping in mind the fiscal discipline.

However, the Congress party later changed it and increased the minimum income to Rs 6,000. Sadly, Banerjee’s idea to eradicate poverty from India through his NYAY scheme failed to become realty after the Congress lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections miserably.

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"Going with Rs 2,500 or Rs 3,000 (per month) would have been a good start. I was a bit more conscious of the fiscal constraints in saying that," Banerjee had said in March this year.

He had come to India to launch his new book "What the Economy Needs Now'. He co-authored the book with 13 economists, including Raghuram Rajan and Gita Gopinath, Pranjul Bhandari, Sajjid Chenoy, among others.

"My view was that they should have gone slower. That it would have been easier to create the fiscal space if they went slower. I see the compulsion of going faster which is that you want to make a mark. It's an election coming up," Banerjee added.