Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee made the country proud by winning the accolade with his wife Esther Duflo. His work focused on experimental measures to alleviate global poverty. The Kolkata-born economist completed his MA in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in 1983 after which he moved to US to pursue PhD from Harvard University.

The university, when learnt of its aluminus' accomplishment has been celebrating, with some of his professors and peers knowing that Banerjee’s valuable contributions in the field would be recognised.