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Dr. Bibek Debroy, economist and chairman of Prime Minister Modi's Economic Advisory Council, died on Friday. He was 69 years old.
In a statement issued by AIIMS Delhi, it was said that he was suffering from intestinal infection. He breathed his last at around 7 in the morning.
Padma Shri awardee Debroy has been a member of NITI Aayog. He wrote easy translations of all the Puranas into English for the new generation.
Dr. Debroy's early education took place at Ramakrishna Mission School in Narendrapur, Kolkata. After this, he completed his higher education from Presidency College, Kolkata, Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge.
PM wrote on X- Debroy left an indelible mark on the intellectual landscape of India
Prime Minister Modi posted on social media and wrote – Dr. Bibek Debroy ji was a brilliant scholar. He was well versed in economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality and other diverse fields. Through his works he left an indelible mark on the intellectual landscape of India. In addition to his contributions to public policy, he also enjoyed working on our ancient texts and making them accessible to young people.
Jairam Ramesh said – Debroy had special skills Jairam Ramesh said that Bibek Debroy was an excellent economist. He worked on various aspects of the Indian economy. He had special skills, due to which people could easily understand difficult economic issues through the articles and books written by him.
Jairam Ramesh wrote that Debroy will be remembered as a true master of Sanskrit. His translations include 10 volumes of Mahabharata, 3 volumes of Ramayana and 3 volumes of Bhagavata Purana. He also translated Bhagavad Gita and Harivansh.
Jairam Ramesh said, 'I knew Bibek Debroy for almost four decades. We used to talk on all kinds of topics. Recently, I sent him two books that I knew he would enjoy. He will always be remembered.
Debroy's academic career started in 1979
- Debroy started his academic career at Presidency College, Kolkata from 1979 to 1984. He then joined the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, where he worked till 1987.
- After this, from 1987 to 1993, he took charge of the Institute of Foreign Trade in Delhi. In 1993, Debroy became the director of a project of the Ministry of Finance and the United Nations Development Programme. This project focused on India's legal reforms. He was the director till 1998.
- From 1994 to 1995 he worked at the Institute of Economic Affairs, from 1995 to 1996 at the National Council of Applied Economic Research and from 1997 to 2005 he worked at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies.
- After this, from 2005 to 2006, he took charge at the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, then worked at the Center for Policy Research from 2007 to 2015.
There was controversy over an article by Bibek Debroy. Bibek Debroy had written an article on changing the Constitution in the news website The Mint on 14 August 2023. On this, JDU had said that Debroy had written this article at the behest of RSS.
Debroy had written in his article that our current Constitution is largely based on the Government of India Act of 1935. In 2002, a commission set up to review the functioning of the Constitution submitted a report, but it was a half-hearted effort. We must start from first principles, as was the case in the Constituent Assembly debate.
Debroy further wrote in the article – Which constitution does India need for the year 2047? Some amendments to the Constitution will not suffice. Now we must go back to the drawing board and start from first principles. It should be discussed what the words like socialist, secular, democratic, justice, freedom and equality in the Preamble of the Constitution now mean. We have to give the people, ourselves a new constitution.
