Abhijit Sen

Sen was born on 18 November 1950 into a Bengali Baidya family in Jamshedpur, in the present-day Indian state of Jharkhand. His father Samar Sen was an economist with the World Bank. The family moved to New Delhi, where Sen studied at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and later at St. Stephen's College where he studied for a physics honours degree.{{Cite news |last1=Bhattacharya |first1=A. K. |date=19 July 2011 |title=Dinner with BS: Abhijit Sen |newspaper=Business Standard India |url=http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/dinnerbs-abhijit-sen/443113/}}{{Cite web |first1=Chandan |last1=Nandy |title=Saluting Abhijit Sen, one of India's greatest experts on rural economy |url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/aug/30/saluting-abhijit-sen-one-of-indias-greatest-experts-on-rural-economy-2493100.html |date=30 August 2022 |access-date=31 August 2022 |website=The New Indian Express}} He later went to the University of Cambridge and obtained a PhD in economics in 1981 as a member of Trinity Hall, with a thesis titled "The agrarian constraint to economic development: the case of India" written under the supervision of Suzy Paine.

Sen started his career teaching at many of the universities in the UK, including those at University of Sussex, Oxford University, University of Cambridge, and the University of Essex, before returning to New Delhi to teach at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). In 1985, he moved to the university's Center for Economic Studies and Planning.

Sen was appointed by the United Front government in 1997 to lead the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). The commission studied the cost structures of various agricultural products and was tasked with setting the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farm produce. Sen was also the chairman of a number of official Commissions, including the High Level Committee on Long Term Grain Policy, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, the Tenth Plan Subgroup on Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.{{Cite web |title=Planning Commission, Government of India |url=http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/history/index.php?about=abhibody.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120105106/http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/history/index.php?about=abhibody.htm |archive-date=20 January 2013 |access-date=2 January 2013}} Sen's work computed MSP based on not only direct costs of producing the grains, but also included indirect costs like unpaid family labor, opportunity costs from rent and interest lost on owned land, as well as capital asset costs. This recommendation was captured in the eventual 'Swaminathan Formula' that was adopted to compute the MSP costs which pegged MSP at 50% higher than direct production costs.

Sen was first appointed to the Planning Commission during the United Progressive Alliance government under Manmohan Singh in 2004 and was re-appointed for a second five-year term from 2009 to 2014.{{Cite web |date=30 August 2022 |title=Economist And Former Planning Commission Member Abhijit Sen Passes Away |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/business/economist-and-former-planning-commission-member-abhijit-sen-passes-away-news-219784 |access-date=5 September 2022 |website=Outlook India |language=en}} He was also a member of the State Planning Boards of West Bengal and Tripura, PM's Taskforce on Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, and the Expert Committee on Rural Credit. Sen's recommendations included the establishment of a universal Public Distribution System (PDS) that eliminated categorization of poverty lines as determinants of grains and instead had the central government fix the uniform prices of rice, wheat and other grains. This was the basis for the then central government's disbursal of wheat and rice at {{Indian Rupee}}2 and {{Indian Rupee}}3 per kilogram, respectively.{{Cite web |date=30 August 2022 |title=Abhijit Sen – An Advocate Of MSP, Public Distribution System |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/business/abhijit-sen-an-advocate-of-msp-public-distribution-system-news-219858 |access-date=5 September 2022 |website=Outlook India |language=en}} As an advocate of the universal PDS system, Sen maintained that the cost of food subsidies was overstated and that a country like India could afford both a universal PDS system providing food grains at an affordable rate to its population, while also providing a minimum support price to its farmers.

Sen also was adviser and consultant with international organisations, such as the United Nations' Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization and World Institute for Development Economics Research, International Labour Organization, OECD Development Centre, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Asian Development Bank.{{cite news |last1=Mukherjee |first1=Sanjeeb |title=Noted agricultural economist, former CACP chief Abhijit Sen passes away |url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/noted-agricultural-economist-former-cacp-chief-abhijit-sen-passes-away-122083000174_1.html |access-date=5 September 2022 |work=Business Standard India |date=30 August 2022 |language=en}}

Sen received the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, for public service in 2010.

Sen was married to economist Jayati Ghosh whom he met at the JNU. The couple had a daughter named Jahnavi Sen, a journalist with The Wire.{{Cite web |date=30 August 2022 |title=Economist Abhijit Sen, advocate of public distribution system, is no more |url=https://www.livemint.com/news/india/economist-abhijit-sen-advocate-of-public-distribution-system-is-no-more-11661829220057.html |access-date=31 August 2022 |website=mint |language=en}}{{Cite web |first1=Harish |last1=Damodaran |date=30 August 2022 |title=Abhijit Sen, one of India's leading agriculture economists and distinguished academics, passes away |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/economist-abhijit-sen-passes-away-8119885/ |access-date=31 August 2022 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}}

Sen had a heart attack and died in New Delhi on 29 August 2022, at the age of 71.

• {{Cite journal |last1=Nayyar |first1=Deepak |last2=Sen |first2=Abhijit |date=1994 |title=International Trade and the Agricultural Sector in India |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4401202 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=29 |issue=20 |pages=1187–1203 |jstor=4401202 |issn=0012-9976}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Sen |first=Abhijit |date=1981 |title=Market failure and control of labour power: towards an explanation of 'structure' and change in Indian agriculture. Part 1 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23596613 |journal=Cambridge Journal of Economics |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=201–228 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035482 |jstor=23596613 |issn=0309-166X|url-access=subscription }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Sen |first=Abhijit |date=1996 |title=Economic Reforms, Employment and Poverty: Trends and Options |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4404565 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=31 |issue=35/37 |pages=2459–2477 |jstor=4404565 |issn=0012-9976}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Sen |first1=Abhijit |last2=Himanshu |date=2004 |title=Poverty and Inequality in India: I |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4415560 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=39 |issue=38 |pages=4247–4263 |jstor=4415560 |issn=0012-9976}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=AK Shiva |last2=Chen |first2=Lincoln C. |last3=Choudhury |first3=Mita |last4=Ganju |first4=Shiban |last5=Mahajan |first5=Vijay |last6=Sinha |first6=Amarjeet |last7=Sen |first7=Abhijit |date=2011 |title=Financing health care for all: challenges and opportunities |url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61884-3/abstract |journal=The Lancet |language=English |volume=377 |issue=9766 |pages=668–679 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61884-3 |issn=0140-6736 |pmid=21227490|s2cid=9881251 |url-access=subscription }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Sen |first=Abhijit |date=2000 |title=Estimates of Consumer Expenditure and Its Distribution: Statistical Priorities after NSS 55th Round |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4410083 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=35 |issue=51 |pages=4499–4518 |jstor=4410083 |issn=0012-9976}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sen|first=Abhijit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V0NLztNjtOwC |title=Including the Excluded: The Real Challenge of Indian Planning |date=2011 |publisher=Centre for Social Welfare Administration and Administration of Justice, Indian Institute of Public Administration |language=en}}

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{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 2010–19}}

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Category:1950 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:20th-century Indian economists

Category:Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Category:Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University

Category:People from New Delhi

Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in public affairs

Category:Scientists from Delhi