Abhijit Sen

Indian economist (1950–2022)

This article is about the economist. For the physicist, see Abhijit Sen (physicist).

Abhijit Sen

Sen in 2009

Born| (1950-11-18)18 November 1950

Jamshedpur, Bihar, India

Died| 29 August 2022(2022-08-29) (aged 71)

New Delhi, India

Occupations|

* Professor
* economist

Spouse| Jayati Ghosh
Academic background
Alma mater|

* St. Stephen's College, Delhi
* Trinity Hall, Cambridge (PhD)

Thesis| The Agrarian Constraint to Economic Development: The Case of India
Doctoral advisor| Suzy Paine

Abhijit Sen (18 November 1950 – 29 August 2022) was an Indian economist who focused on studying rural development. Sen was appointed to the Planning Commission of India between 2004 and 2014 and held a number of policy making positions in India. Amongst his works included recommendations toward establishment of minimum support price for farm produce and a universal public distribution system. Sen was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor, in 2010.

## Early life

[edit]

Sen was born on 18 November 1950[1][2] into a Bengali Baidya family in Jamshedpur, in the present-day Indian state of Jharkhand. His father Samar Sen was an economist with the World Bank. The family moved to New Delhi, where Sen studied at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and later at St. Stephen's College where he studied for a physics honours degree.[3][1] He later went to the University of Cambridge and obtained a PhD in economics in 1981 as a member of Trinity Hall, with a thesis titled "The agrarian constraint to economic development: the case of India" written under the supervision of Suzy Paine.[1]

## Career

[edit]

Sen started his career teaching at many of the universities in the UK, including those at University of Sussex, Oxford University, University of Cambridge, and the University of Essex, before returning to New Delhi to teach at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). In 1985, he moved to the university's Center for Economic Studies and Planning.[1]

### Public policy

[edit]

Sen was appointed by the United Front government in 1997 to lead the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). The commission studied the cost structures of various agricultural products and was tasked with setting the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farm produce. Sen was also the chairman of a number of official Commissions, including the High Level Committee on Long Term Grain Policy, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, the Tenth Plan Subgroup on Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.[4] Sen's work computed MSP based on not only direct costs of producing the grains, but also included indirect costs like unpaid family labor, opportunity costs from rent and interest lost on owned land, as well as capital asset costs. This recommendation was captured in the eventual 'Swaminathan Formula' that was adopted to compute the MSP costs which pegged MSP at 50% higher than direct production costs.[5]

Sen was first appointed to the Planning Commission during the United Progressive Alliance government under Manmohan Singh in 2004 and was re-appointed for a second five-year term from 2009 to 2014.[2] He was also a member of the State Planning Boards of West Bengal and Tripura, PM's Taskforce on Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, and the Expert Committee on Rural Credit.[4] Sen's recommendations included the establishment of a universal Public Distribution System (PDS) that eliminated categorization of poverty lines as determinants of grains and instead had the central government fix the uniform prices of rice, wheat and other grains. This was the basis for the then central government's disbursal of wheat and rice at ₹2 and ₹3 per kilogram, respectively.[5] As an advocate of the universal PDS system, Sen maintained that the cost of food subsidies was overstated and that a country like India could afford both a universal PDS system providing food grains at an affordable rate to its population, while also providing a minimum support price to its farmers.[5]

Sen also was adviser and consultant with international organisations, such as the United Nations' Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization and World Institute for Development Economics Research, International Labour Organization, OECD Development Centre, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Asian Development Bank.[4][6]

Sen received the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, for public service in 2010.[7]

## Personal life

[edit]

Sen was married to economist Jayati Ghosh whom he met at the JNU. The couple had a daughter named Jahnavi Sen, a journalist with The Wire.[7][8][1]

Sen had a heart attack and died in New Delhi on 29 August 2022,[2] at the age of 71.[7]

## Select published works

[edit]

* Nayyar, Deepak; Sen, Abhijit (1994). "International Trade and the Agricultural Sector in India". Economic and Political Weekly. 29 (20): 1187–1203\. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4401202.
* Sen, Abhijit (1981). "Market failure and control of labour power: towards an explanation of 'structure' and change in Indian agriculture. Part 1". Cambridge Journal of Economics. 5 (3): 201–228\. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035482. ISSN 0309-166X. JSTOR 23596613.
* Sen, Abhijit (1996). "Economic Reforms, Employment and Poverty: Trends and Options". Economic and Political Weekly. 31 (35/37): 2459–2477\. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4404565.
* Sen, Abhijit; Himanshu (2004). "Poverty and Inequality in India: I". Economic and Political Weekly. 39 (38): 4247–4263\. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4415560.
* Kumar, AK Shiva; Chen, Lincoln C.; Choudhury, Mita; Ganju, Shiban; Mahajan, Vijay; Sinha, Amarjeet; Sen, Abhijit (2011). "Financing health care for all: challenges and opportunities". The Lancet. 377 (9766): 668–679\. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61884-3. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 21227490. S2CID 9881251.
* Sen, Abhijit (2000). "Estimates of Consumer Expenditure and Its Distribution: Statistical Priorities after NSS 55th Round". Economic and Political Weekly. 35 (51): 4499–4518\. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4410083.
* Sen, Abhijit (2011). Including the Excluded: The Real Challenge of Indian Planning. Centre for Social Welfare Administration and Administration of Justice, Indian Institute of Public Administration.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Nandy, Chandan (30 August 2022). "Saluting Abhijit Sen, one of India's greatest experts on rural economy". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
2. ^ a b c "Economist And Former Planning Commission Member Abhijit Sen Passes Away". Outlook India. 30 August 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
3. ^ Bhattacharya, A. K. (19 July 2011). "Dinner with BS: Abhijit Sen". Business Standard India.
4. ^ a b c "Planning Commission, Government of India". Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
5. ^ a b c "Abhijit Sen – An Advocate Of MSP, Public Distribution System". Outlook India. 30 August 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
6. ^ Mukherjee, Sanjeeb (30 August 2022). "Noted agricultural economist, former CACP chief Abhijit Sen passes away". Business Standard India. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
7. ^ a b c "Economist Abhijit Sen, advocate of public distribution system, is no more". mint. 30 August 2022. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
8. ^ Damodaran, Harish (30 August 2022). "Abhijit Sen, one of India's leading agriculture economists and distinguished academics, passes away". The Indian Express. Retrieved 31 August 2022.

* v
* t
* e

Padma Bhushan award recipients (2010–2019)

2010|

* Satya Paul Agarwal
* Mohammad Amin
* Sailesh Kumar Bandopadhyay
* M. S. Banga
* Anil Bordia
* Bipan Chandra
* B. K. Chaturvedi
* Sant Singh Chatwal
* G. P. Chopra
* Tan Chung
* Madhusudan Dhaky
* P. R. Dubhashi
* Puttaraj Gawai
* Belle Monappa Hegde
* Ilaiyaraaja
* Jagdish Chandra Kapur
* Shrinivas Khale
* Aamir Khan
* Sultan Khan
* Ram Kumar
* Kumudini Lakhia
* Kuzhur Narayana Marar
* Chhannulal Mishra
* Eledath Thaikkattu Narayanan Mooss
* C. P. Krishnan Nair
* S. P. Oswal
* Akbar Padamsee
* Ramakanta Panda
* Balasaheb Vikhe Patil
* Arogyaswami Paulraj
* A. R. Rahman
* Moosa Raza
* Mallika Sarabhai
* Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana
* Abhijit Sen
* Satya Vrat Shastri
* Noshir M. Shroff
* Kushal Pal Singh
* Bikash Sinha
* Balagangadharanatha Swamiji
* Narayanan Vaghul
* P. K. Warrier
* Fareed Zakaria

2011|

* S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
* Rajashree Birla
* M. N. Buch
* C. V. Chandrasekhar
* Ajai Chowdhry
* Yogesh Chander Deveshwar
* Satyadev Dubey
* T. J. S. George
* Shankha Ghosh
* Kris Gopalakrishnan
* Keki Byramjee Grant
* Shashi Kapoor
* Krishen Khanna
* Khayyam
* Chanda Kochhar
* Dwijen Mukhopadhyay
* Madavoor Vasudevan Nair
* Ramdas Pai
* Dashrath Patel
* Rajendra Singh Pawar
* Suryanarayanan Ramachandran
* Shobhana Ranade
* Gunupati Venkata Krishna Reddy
* Kallam Anji Reddy
* Waheeda Rehman
* Shyam Saran
* Analjit Singh
* Arpita Singh
* Surendra Singh
* R. K. Srikantan
* Raghavan Thirumulpad

2012|

* Suresh H. Advani
* Shabana Azmi
* Homi K. Bhabha
* Shashikumar Chitre
* Khaled Choudhury
* Jatin Das
* Vidya Dehejia
* Dharmendra
* S. N. Goenka
* M. S. Gopalakrishnan
* T. V. Gopalakrishnan
* Buddhadev Das Gupta
* Sunil Janah
* Anish Kapoor
* S. B. Mujumdar
* B. Muthuraman
* Mira Nair
* Arvind Panagariya
* José Pereira
* Mata Prasad
* M. S. Raghunathan
* P. Chandrasekhara Rao
* Ronen Sen
* Devi Shetty
* M. V. Subbiah
* N. Vittal
* N. H. Wadia
* George Yeo

2013|

* Satya N. Atluri
* Maharaj Kishan Bhan
* Jaspal Bhatti
* Rahul Dravid
* Adi Godrej
* Abdul Rashid Khan
* Rajesh Khanna
* Mary Kom
* Nandkishore Shamrao Laud
* Mangesh Padgaonkar
* Hemendra Singh Panwar
* Jogesh Pati
* Shivajirao Girdhar Patil
* A. Sivathanu Pillai
* D. Ramanaidu
* Kanak Rele
* V. K. Saraswat
* Ashoke Sen
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
* B. N. Suresh
* Sharmila Tagore
* Ramamurthy Thyagarajan
* Saroja Vaidyanathan

2014|

* Anisuzzaman
* Mrityunjay Athreya
* Padmanabhan Balaram
* Dalveer Bhandari
* Ruskin Bond
* Anita Desai
* Pullela Gopichand
* Kamal Haasan
* Jyeshtharaj Joshi
* V. N. Kaul
* Neelam Kler
* M. Mahadevappa
* Leander Paes
* Koppillil Radhakrishnan
* Anumolu Ramakrishna
* Thirumalachari Ramasami
* Lloyd Rudolph
* Susanne Hoeber Rudolph
* Vinod Prakash Sharma
* Gulam Mohammed Sheikh
* Parween Sultana
* Dhirubhai Thaker
* Vairamuthu
* J. S. Verma
* T. H. Vinayakram

2015|

* Jahnu Barua
* Manjul Bhargava
* Vijay P. Bhatkar
* Swapan Dasgupta
* David Frawley
* Bill Gates
* Melinda French Gates
* Swami Satyamitranand
* N. Gopalaswami
* Subhash C. Kashyap
* Gokulotsavji Maharaj
* Saichiro Misumi
* Ambrish Mithal
* Sudha Ragunathan
* Harish Salve
* Ashok Seth
* Rajat Sharma
* Satpal Singh
* Shivakumara Swami
* Khadg Singh Valdiya

2016|

* Ravindra Chandra Bhargava
* Robert D. Blackwill
* Hafeez Contractor
* Indu Jain
* Heisnam Kanhailal
* Anupam Kher
* Sania Mirza
* Pallonji Mistry
* Udit Narayan
* Saina Nehwal
* Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad
* Vinod Rai
* N. S. Ramanuja Tatacharya
* A. V. Rama Rao
* D. Nageshwara Reddy
* Dayananda Saraswati
* Barjinder Singh Hamdard
* Ram V. Sutar
* Tejomayananda

2017|

* Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
* Deviprasad Dwivedi
* Ratnasundarsuri
* Niranjanananda Saraswati
* Cho Ramaswamy
* Maha Chakri Sirindhorn
* Tehemton Erach Udwadia

2018|

* Pankaj Advani
* Philipose Mar Chrysostom
* Mahendra Singh Dhoni
* Alexander Kadakin
* Ramachandran Nagaswamy
* Laxman Pai
* Arvind Parikh
* Sharda Sinha

2019|

* John T. Chambers
* Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa
* Pravin Gordhan
* Dharampal Gulati
* Darshan Lal Jain
* Ashok Laxmanrao Kukade
* Kariya Munda
* Budhaditya Mukherjee
* Mohanlal
* Nambi Narayanan
* Kuldip Nayar
* Bachendri Pal
* V. K. Shunglu
* Hukmdev Narayan Yadav

# Posthumous conferral

* 1954–1959
* 1960–1969
* 1970–1979
* 1980–1989
* 1990–1999
* 2000–2009
* 2010–2019
* 2020–2029

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