Nobel Prize-winning economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee will celebrate his 59th birthday tomorrow. Abhijit Banerjee was born on February 21 in 1961. Abhijit Banerjee jointly bagged the Nobel Prize along with his wife Esther Duflo and economist Michael Kremer last year for their work which has "dramatically improved our ability to fight poverty in practice". A former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Banerjee is presently working as a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). On his birthday, we share some of the interesting and unknown things about the Nobel laureate. 'India Needs Better Opposition,' Says Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee at Jaipur Literature Festival.

  • Abhijit Banerjee's mother Nirmala Banerjee was a professor of Economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences in Kolkata. His father Dipak Banerjee was also an eminent economist who headed the Department of Economics at Presidency College.

  • Abhijit Banerjee completed his BSc(H) degree in economics at Presidency College in 1981. He completed his M.A. in economics at the JNU in the year 1983. 'Nirmala Sitharaman Once Shared Similar Views, Was My JNU Contemporary', Says Abhijit Banerjee in Response to 'Left-Leaning' Jibe.

  • Abhijit pursued a PhD in Economics from Harvard in 1988. His thesis subject was “Essays in Information Economics”.

  • Although Abhijit Banerjee was a brilliant student during his school days, he never ranked first.

  • Before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he also taught at Harvard University and Princeton University.

  • Abhijit was first married to Arundhati Tuli Banerjee, but the couple parted ways. Their son died in 2016. Abhijit tied the knot with one-time PhD student Esther Duflo in 2015. They have a child who was born in 2012.

  • According to his mother, Abhijit Banerjee is an ace cook and a complete family man. He also has a keen interest in classical music.

  • From football to cricket, Abhijit loves playing all sorts of sports — although he was not very good in any of these. His nickname is Jhima.

Abhijit Banerjee is a co-founder of Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab along with economists Esther Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan. In 2012, he won Gerald Loeb Award along with co-author Esther Duflo for their book Poor Economics. Duflo-Banerjee have published dozens of research papers together or with other co-authors and also jointly penned the upcoming "Good Economics for Hard Times" (2019).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 20, 2020 08:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).