Mrinal Datta-Chaudhuri (1934–2015), popularly known as MDC, was an Indian theoretical economist, academic and a professor of the

Delhi School of Economics Delhi School of Economics (DSE), popularly referred to as "D School", is a Higher Educational Institution within the University of Delhi. The Delhi School of Economics is situated in University of Delhi's North Campus in Maurice Nagar. Establ ...

. He was a member of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

, Princeton. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, in 2005, for his contributions to literature and education.

Biography

Mrinal Datta-Chaudhuri was born on 4 January 1935 at Srigauri, a small village in Cachar, Assam, in East Bengal of the

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He did his college education at

Shantiniketan Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...

where he studied with

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...

, who later won the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

for economics, and

Sukhamoy Chakraborty Sukhamoy Chakravarty (26 July 1934 – 22 August 1990) was an Indian economist who, along with Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, was a key architect of the Five-Year plans of India. He attended Ballygunge Government High School, Calcutta and Presiden ...

. He completed his post graduate education at

Presidency College, Calcutta Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...

. Receiving a full-paid scholarship to pursue his doctoral studies at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, he studied under the guidance of

Paul Samuelson Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009) was an American economist who was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. When awarding the prize in 1970, the Swedish Royal Academies stated that he "h ...

, the first American Nobel Laureate in Economics who was later described by the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

as the ''foremost academic economist of the 20th century''. The stint at MIT also gave him opportunity to study under Nobel Prize winners such as

Robert Solow Robert Merton Solow, GCIH (; born August 23, 1924) is an American economist whose work on the theory of economic growth culminated in the exogenous growth model named after him. He is currently Emeritus Institute Professor of Economics at the Ma ...

Franco Modigliani Franco Modigliani (18 June 1918 – 25 September 2003) was an Italian-American economist and the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. He was a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Carnegie Mellon Uni ...

and

Kenneth Arrow Kenneth Joseph Arrow (23 August 1921 – 21 February 2017) was an American economist, mathematician, writer, and political theorist. He was the joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with John Hicks in 1972. In economics ...

and mingle with

Joseph Stiglitz Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the Joh ...

and

George Akerlof George Arthur Akerlof (born June 17, 1940) is an American economist and a university professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and Koshland Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. ...

, who would also go on to win Nobel Prize later. Datta-Chaudhuri secured his PhD in economics in 1966 and returned to India the same year to start his career at the

Indian Statistical Institute Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is a higher education and research institute which is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the 1959 act of the Indian parliament. It grew out of the Statistical Laboratory set up by Prasanta C ...

to work for the next two years there as well as at

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...

. He moved to

in 1968, reportedly on invitation from

K. N. Raj Kakkadan Nandanath Rajan (13 May 1924 – 10 February 2010) was an Indian economist. He is popularly known as K. N. Raj. He played an important role in India's planned development, drafting sections of India's first Five Year Plan, specifically ...

, the author of the introductory chapter of the first Five Year Plan of India, as a professor of Economics and worked there until his superannuation in 1999. During this period, he served as the Head of the Department of Economics from 1974 to 1977 and as the director of the institution from 1986 to 1991. He also served as a visiting professor at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Datta-Chaudhuri, a member of the

, Princeton, was credited with several articles which included ''Market Failures and Government Failures'' published in the

Journal of Economic Perspectives The ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'' (JEP) is an economic journal published by the American Economic Association. The journal was established in 1987. It is very broad in its scope. According to its editors its purpose is: #to synthesize and ...

(1990) and contributions to texts such as the 75-page chapter on ''Interindustry Planning Models for a Multiregional Economy'' in the book ''Economy-wide models and development planning''. He co-wrote one book, ''Regional Development Experiences and Prospects in South and Southeast Asia'' with Louis Lefeber and edited another, ''Development and Change: Essays in Honour of K. N. Raj''. He had close association with

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

and when the latter became the Finance Minister of India in 1991 during the

economic crisis An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the p ...

, Datta-Chaudhuri assisted him in the formulation of many policy decisions and remained a member of the unofficial think-tank during Singh's tenancy as the Finance Minister and later, as the Prime Minister. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of the

in 2005. Towards the later days of his life, he had

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce ...

and moved to

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

to stay with his brother, Malay Dutta Choudhury. He died, aged 82, on 19 May 2015 reportedly due to cardiac arrest, at his brother's residence, survived by two sons from his second marriage, Timir Datta-Chaudhuri and Mihir Datta-Chaudhuri, his first wife had predeceased him.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudhuri, Mrinal Datta Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education 1934 births 2015 deaths Scientists from West Bengal Bengali scientists 20th-century Indian economists Scientists from Assam People associated with Santiniketan MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni Academic staff of Jadavpur University Academic staff of the Indian Statistical Institute Academic staff of Delhi University University of California, Berkeley faculty Harvard University faculty People from Cachar district 20th-century Indian educational theorists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links