WATCH: Abhijit Banerjee picks up Economics Nobel Prize in kurta and dhoti

Esther Duflo arrived in an Indian attire of dark velvet saree and a red blouse

abhijit-banerjee-reuters Abhijit Banerjee shakes hands with Sweden's King Carl Gustaf as he receives the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences | Reuters

Economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo—also his wife—who won the Nobel Prize in Economics received the award at a ceremony in Stockholm on Tuesday. The Indian-origin academic, who hails from West Bengal, arrived dressed in a dhoti and kurta; Duflo arrived replete in an Indian attire of dark velvet saree and a red blouse. 

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer were chosen for the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019 “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty". Their works in developmental economics won them the Nobel recognition. "The 2019 Economic Sciences Laureates’ research findings have dramatically improved our ability to fight poverty in practice. As a result of one of their studies, more than 5 million Indian children have benefitted from programmes of remedial tutoring in schools," noted the Nobel committee.  

The three were awarded nine million kronor ($9,18,000) cash award, a gold medal and a diploma. "The research conducted by the 2019 Economic Sciences 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 committee noted in their announcements. 

Born in Dhule in Maharashtra, Abhijit is the first child of his parents—Deepak and Nirmala Banerjee. Both Deepak and Nirmala were professors of economics. While Deepak was a professor at Presidency College in Kolkata, Nirmala was a professor at Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta. “Yes, I know about his studies, which has been going on for years. But not all I could understand. This is because the mathematics used to solve such theory was beyond my capacity," says a proud Nirmala at her Kolkata residence. The Banerjees belong to an affluent family in Kolkata.

Abhijit's win brings the second nobel prize in economics to his alma mater—Kolkata's famous Presidency College (now a university), while the city of joy receives its fourth, after Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa and Amartya Sen.