Well-known economist and Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Bibek Debroy is no more. He was 69 years old and breathed his last early Friday morning.
In a social media post, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him a towering scholar, well-versed in diverse domains like economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality and more. Through his works, he left an indelible mark on India’s intellectual landscape. Beyond his contributions to public policy, he enjoyed working on our ancient texts, making them accessible to the youth. “I have known Dr. Debroy for many years. I will fondly remember his insights and passion for academic discourse. Saddened by his passing away. Condolences to his family and friends. Om Shanti,” he said.
FM condoles death
In her condolence message, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that as Chairman of the PM Economic Advisory Council, he profusely participated in policymaking. His interests, inter alia, were ancient texts, Vedic and classical Sanskrit, Devi, and Railways. He was prolific in translating Sanskrit to English—our epics and Puranas.
His book Sarama and Her Children showed his uncanny knack for extracting nuggets from our ancient texts. “Bibek, you had so much more to do and to complete— for all our sake! Farewell! Om Shanti.,” she said in a social media post.
Dr Debroy was educated at Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur, followed by Presidency College, Kolkata, Delhi School of Economics, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked at Presidency College, Kolkata (1979-83); Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune (1983-87); Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi (1987-93); as the Director of a Ministry of Finance/UNDP project on legal reforms (1993-98); Department of Economic Affairs (1994-95): National Council of Applied Economic Research (1995-96); Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies ( 1997-2005); PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2005-06); and Centre for Policy Research (2007-2015). Dr. Debroy was also a Member of NITI Aayog up to June 5, 2019.
He authored/edited several books, papers, and popular articles and was also a consulting/contributing editor for several newspapers.