Abhijit Banerjee speaks to reporters after meeting PM.
Abhijit Banerjee, winner of the 2019 Economics Nobel, this afternoon spoke to reporters hours after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tweeting a photo of the meeting with Dr Banerjee, PM Modi said "India is proud of his accomplishments". "Excellent meeting with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee. His passion towards human empowerment is clearly visible. We had a healthy and extensive interaction on various subjects. India is proud of his accomplishments. Wishing him the very best for his future endeavours," PM Modi tweeted after the meeting.
Here are the highlights of Abhijeet Banerjee's press conference after meeting PM Modi
- "I had a cordial and good meeting PM cracked a joke and said I would be trapped into anti-Modi statements, I am not going to allow the media to get into this," he told reporters
- "A very large part of my work in India is about bettering the quality of education. It has always been about increasing the quality of education, and the Nobel committee has recognized that body of work," he said.
- "The problem of healthcare globally is that people do not get value for mone," Mr Banerjee said.
- "When a lot of money is spent on healthcare, it is important to see if you are getting good treatment," he added.
- "A very important gap in our economic structure is that when someone needs a lot of treatment, a family loses all its assets... that is a big area of weakness in healthcare," Mr Banerjee said.
- On low ranking of HDI, he said, "I have had no contribution to the HDI (Human Development Index) and it is doing quite okay without me. So, I don't want to get into something I am not involved in."