Kolkata:Nobel laureate and famous economist Amartya Sen is alive, his daughter Nandana Deb Sen confirmed to ETV Bharat shortly after reports in several media outlets claimed Sen had passed away.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Nandana said the 89-year-old economist was alive and doing well. "It's fake news, Baba is absolutely fine... I spent a week with him at our Cambridge home. He is perfectly fine and teaching two courses at Harvard," she said.
Nandana also tweeted about her father's well-being shortly afterwards. "Friends, thanks for your concern but it’s fake news: Baba is totally fine. We just spent a wonderful week together w/ family in Cambridge—his hug as strong as always last night when we said bye! He is teaching 2 courses a week at Harvard, working on his gender book—busy as ever!" Nandana tweeted.
The false news seemed to have originated from a fake X handle (@profCGoldin) claiming to be Claudia Goldin, the Economist who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday.
"A terrible news. My dearest Professor Amartya Sen has died minutes ago. No words," the post read. ETV Bharat tried to confirm the veracity of the handle and realised that the real Claudia Goldin had a different X account (@PikaGoldin) which was followed by the official Nobel Prize X handle.
Benjamin James Goldsmith, a famous economist, reacted to the fake tweet also confirming that Sen was alive and that he had spoken to him today. "Um, we just spoke to him and he’s most definitely not dead. What is this?" Goldsmith tweeted.
About Amartya Sen
Born in 1933, Amartya Sen is a renowned Indian economist and philosopher known globally for his groundbreaking work in development theory and welfare economics. His "contributions to welfare economics" earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998.
A statement on the official Nobel Prize website on Sen's work says that he has made several key contributions to the research on fundamental problems in welfare economics. "His contributions range from axiomatic theory of social choice, over definitions of welfare and poverty indexes, to empirical studies of famine. They are tied closely together by a general interest in distributional issues and a particular interest in the most impoverished members of society. Sen has clarified the conditions which permit aggregation of individual values into collective decisions, and the conditions which permit rules for collective decision making that are consistent with a sphere of rights for the individual," it reads.
Also read: Amartya Sen vs Visva-Bharati: US Nobel laureate, economist Stiglitz throws his weight behind Nobel laureate
