Amartya Sen, born on November 3, 1933, is an Indian economist and a Nobel Prize and Bharat Ratna awardee. Sen is best known for his work on the causes of famine, which led to the development of practical solutions for preventing or limiting the effects of real or perceived shortages of food. He has also made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economic and social justice, decision theory, development economics, public health, and measures of well-being of countries.
Sen was educated at Presidency College in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. He taught economics at a number of universities in India and England, including the Universities of Jadavpur and Delhi, the London School of Economics, the University of London, and the University of Oxford, before moving to Harvard University, where he was professor of economics and philosophy. In 1998, he was appointed master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a position he held until 2004, when he returned to Harvard as Lamont University Professor.
Amartya Sen published his Ph.D. thesis titled ‘The choice of Techniques’ in 1959. Afterwards, he became a visiting Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sen taught as a Professor from 1961 to 1972 at the Delhi School of Economics. He was also a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and the University of Calcutta.
Amartya Sen’s book titled ‘Collective Choice and Social Welfare’ was published in 1970. This is one of his most influential theses that deals with the issues of primary welfare, justice, equality and individual rights. He published another book titled ‘On Economic Inequality’ in 1973. The book was about the study of the theory of welfare economics about the study of economic inequality.
He emphasized the cause of lack of food supply, malnutrition and analysis of famines in an essay he wrote in 1981. It is a powerful essay entitled, ‘Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation.’ Sen’s interest in famine stemmed from personal experience. As a nine-year-old boy, he witnessed the Bengal famine of 1943, in which three million people perished. This staggering loss of life was unnecessary, Sen concluded. He believed that there was an adequate food supply in India at the time but that its distribution was hindered because particular groups of people—in this case rural labourers—lost their jobs and therefore their ability to purchase the food. Sen revealed that in many cases of famine, food supplies were not significantly reduced. Instead, a number of social and economic factors—such as declining wages, unemployment, rising food prices, and poor food-distribution systems—led to starvation among certain groups in society.
Sen’s works highlight solutions for a more egalitarian society. This celebrated economist is the sixth Indian to receive a Nobel and the first Asian recipient of the Economics Prize. In 1998, Amartya Sen was the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. This was in recognition for Sen’s contribution to the field of ‘welfare economics.’ 1999, Sen was the recipient of the Bharat Ratna award, which is the highest civilian award in India. Amartya was awarded National Humanities Medal in 2011.
Amartya Sen is a well-liked, award-winning economist. Amartya is a writer and philosopher. He presented the plight of the underprivileged and starving people. He is diligently engaged in the problems of the society’s poorest people. He came out with practical solutions to prevent the shortage of food and starvation. Amartya Sen was included on Time Magazine’s list of ‘World’s 50 Most Influential People Who Matter’. A Nobel Laureate who helped in creating the United Nations Human Development Index. He is an outstanding intellectual.
