Indian American economist Abhijit Banerjee and his French-American wife Esther Duflo along with their colleague Michael Kremer received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences on Tuesday. The couple chose to ditch the expected tuxedo and dress for an Indian look during the ceremony and Indian Twitterati are applauding Abhijit for showing up in a kurta and bandhgala jacket with dhoti.
The US-based economists looked dapper with Banerjee turning up in a kurta that he teamed with a white gold-bordered dhoti and closed neck black vest, a nod to his Bengali origins. Duflo also chose to wear Indian attire in a saree and red blouse and the quintessential red bindi for the award ceremony that was held at the Stockholm Concert Hall here.
The economists along with Michael Kremer received the award for their work to alleviate global poverty that has helped millions of children in an experimental approach that favours practical steps over theory.
In a tweet, the Nobel Prize committee shared a small video of Banerjee, Duflo and Kremer receiving the award. "Watch Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer receive their medals and diplomas at the #NobelPrize award ceremony today. Congratulations! They were awarded the 2019 Prize in Economic Sciences for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty," Nobel Prize tweeted.
"The research conducted by this year's Laureates has considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty. In just two decades, their new, experiment-based approach has transformed development economics, which is now a flourishing field of research," the organisation said on its website.
With this, Banerjee becomes second Indian to receive Nobel Prize in Economics. In 1998, Amartya Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his contributions to welfare economics".
Meanwhile, 46-year-old Duflo became only the second woman to win the prize for economics.
With inputs from Agencies.
