Kolkata: Hundreds of people went to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport to welcome Nobel Laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, who arrived in his hometown for a brief visit on Tuesday evening. He was received by Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim and several senior ministers of the state government. Hakim handed over a flower bouquet to Banerjee, who left for his South Kolkata residence shortly after arriving at the airport at 7:10 pm from Delhi. Huge cutouts have been put up at Esplanade and along Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, welcoming the Nobel Laureate. Banerjee, who is a teacher at MIT, came to Delhi in connection with the release of his book Good Economics for hard times. Banerjee shared the Nobel prize in Economics along with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Tuesday afternoon. Banerjee went to his flat at Saptaparni on Ballygunge Circular Road and was received by his mother Nirmala Banerjee, also an economist. Banerjees father Dipak Banerjee, a renowned teacher in Economics at Presidency College, passed away a few years ago. After his death, the Banerjee family moved into this apartment from their ancestral house on Mahanirvan Road. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had met and talked with Nirmala Banerjee at her flat last week. Banerjee will enjoy his favourite alur dam and luchi at home, along with fried rice, rui macher kalia, sweets and chatni for dinner. Banerjee has a long association with Kolkata. He was born in Mumbai but came to the city when he was a few months old. He passed out from South Point High School and graduated from Presidency College. Loved by all for his simplicity and capacity to mix with people coming from all strata of life, he along with his mother used to teach slum children English and Mathematics. He keeps coming to the city and had been to Nadia and Birbhum districts with his wife Esther, where they worked for the poor people. It may be mentioned that Banerjee is the only Nobel Laureate who had addressed the press conference at MIT in his mother tongue, shortly after getting the Nobel prize. Whenever he visits Kolkata, he makes it a point to visit Presidency College (now University), where he was one of the members of the mentor group. The alumni of Presidency College will confer the Atul Chandra Gupta Distinguished Alumnus Award to Banerjee, who will be leaving for MIT on Wednesday afternoon. The Calcutta University is also eager to confer Doctor of Science (DSC) degree to Banerjee in its convocation scheduled in January. However, the decision to bestow the honour needs to be ratified at the next syndicate meeting of the varsity. It has been learnt that Vice-Chancellor of CU Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee spoke with the Nobel Laureate, soon after his arrival in the city. The CU V-C and Banerjee had been batch mates at Presidency College.

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