Bibek Debroy

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Bibek Debroy
Debroy in 2008
Born(1955-01-25)25 January 1955
Shillong, Assam, India
Died1 November 2024(2024-11-01) (aged 69)
New Delhi, India
Alma materPresidency College
University of Delhi
Trinity College, Cambridge
OccupationEconomist
SpouseSuparna Banerjee
ChildrenNihshanka Debroy
Vidroha Debroy Vinayak Kumar
AwardsPadma Shri, Padma Bhushan

Bibek Debroy (Bengali: বিবেক দেবরয়, Hindi: बिबेक देबराय, 25 January 1955 – 1 November 2024) was an economist who chaired both the Indian Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and a Finance Ministry expert committee on infrastructure,[1][2] contributing significantly to game theory, economic theory,[3] and the study of income and social inequalities, law reforms and railway reforms. From 2015 until 2019, Debroy was a member of an Indian government think tank known as NITI Aayog. He was also a prolific translator of major Sanskrit works — including the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and several Purāṇas — into English.

Bibek Debroy's magnum opus, Inked in India, co-authored with Sovan Roy, is a comprehensive catalogue of India's fountain pen, nib, and ink manufacturers.[4]

India awarded him Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour, in 2015 and, posthumously, Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour, in 2025.[5][6]

He received Lifetime Achievement awards from the US-India Business Summit in 2016[7][8][9][10][11] and from the Australia India Chamber of Commerce (AICC) in 2022.[12]

In February 2024, Debroy was conferred an Insolvency Law Academy emeritus fellowship, in recognition of his leadership, public service work and contributions to the insolvency field.[13]

Bibek Debroy died on 1 November 2024, at the age of 69, a month after his admission to All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.[14][15][16]

Early life

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Debroy was born in Shillong, now in Meghalaya, on 25 January 1955 to a family of Bengali Hindus. His grandparents had migrated from Pail, Habiganj in Sylhet, now in Bangladesh; his paternal grandfather and his father migrating as late as 1948. His father went on to join the Indian Audit and Accounts Service.

Bibek Debroy started his school education at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur, then at Kolkata Presidency College and Delhi School of Economics. Later, Debroy went to the University of Cambridge on a Trinity College scholarship, where, under the tutelage of Frank Hahn, a noted British economist, he worked on integrating information into a general equilibrium framework, was granted as MSc degree and returned to work in India.[17]

Career

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Economics

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Debroy's earlier positions included director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, consultant to the Department of Economic Affairs of Finance Ministry (India), and director of the project LARGE (Legal Adjustments and Reforms for Globalising the Economy), set up by the Finance Ministry and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to examine legal reforms in India. Between December 2006 and July 2007, he was the rapporteur for implementation in the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.[18] Debroy authored several books, papers and popular articles, was consulting editor of Indian financial newspapers, and was a member of the National Manufacturing Competitive Council (2004 to 2009).[19] He chaired a Jharkhand state committee to recommend a state development plan.[20] He has been a Member of the Chief Minister's Economic Advisory Council in Rajasthan.

From 2014 to 2015, he chaired a Ministry of Railways committee set up to restructure Indian Railways.[21] Debroy had also taught at Presidency College, Calcutta, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and the National Council of Applied Economic Research.

From January 2015 till June 2019, he was a permanent member of NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India Aayog), which replaced the former Planning Commission to act as an Indian government think tank.[22][23]

In September 2017, he was appointed Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, and from September 2018 to September 2022, was President of the Indian Statistical Institute. In September 2022, he was appointed Chancellor of Pune’s Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute.[24] In July 2024, Debroy was also appointed the Chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, where he served till September 2024.[25] Debroy was a Reader (Associate Professor) in Economics at Centre for the Study of East European Economies, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Savitribai Phule Pune University, from March 1983 to March 1987.

Literature and media

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Debroy translated the unabridged Mahābhārata into English, in a series of 10 volumes. He has also translated the Bhagavad Gita, the Harivamsa, the Vedas and Valmiki's Rāmāyaṇa (in three volumes). He has translated the Bhagavata Purana (in three volumes), the Brahma Purana (two volumes), the Shiva Purana (three volumes), the Brahmanda Purana (two volumes) and the Vishnu Purana, Markandeya Purana and Kurma Purana (one volume each).

He was the first person since Manmatha Nath Dutt to have translated the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, both in unabridged form, into English. For his translations, he was conferred the R. G. Bhandarkar Memorial Award in July 2023 by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI).[26]

The reception by experts in the popular press has been generally favourable. Business Standard, reviewing his translation of Ramayana, admired Debroy's lucidity and addition of explanatory footnotes.[27] Arshia Sattar, reviewing the same work for The Indian Express, applauded his translation of the two major Sanskrit epics and praised his introduction to the text as well as literal translation; notwithstanding the relatively poor scholarly apparatus vis-à-vis Goldman, Debroy's was held to be more compact and accessible.[28][29][30] Hindustan Times, reviewing the translation of Mahabharata, commended his academic-like rigour and passion; it spoke favourably of Debroy's choice of words—modernized yet true to the Sanskrit source, and sprinkling of mathematical details in notes.[31] According to a review of Shiva Purana in News18,[32]

Bibek Debroy's translation of the Shiva Purana is lauded by Open Magazine[33].

The review in The Sunday Guardian[34] of Debroy's recent work, "Life, Death and the Ashtavakra Gita," praises the book for successfully combining Bibek Debroy's literal translation of the Ashtavakra Gita with Hindol Sengupta's personal reflections.

In contrast, Willis Goth Regier, director of the University of Illinois Press, found Debroy's translation of Ramayana to be poor and lacking, inferior to that of Robert P. Goldman.[35]

Media

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Debroy anchored Itihasa, a show telecasted on Sansad TV, the official channel of Parliament of India. The series is a journey to discover what is "Bharata", what it means to be "Bhartiya" and what it means in terms of India's Sanatana Sanskriti.

References

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  1. ^ "Bibek Debroy". The Hindu. 23 January 2013.
  2. ^ Sharma, Yogima Seth (26 May 2023). "Infrastructure may get new definition to woo investors". The Economic Times.
  3. ^ "Bibek Debroy". Indianexpress.com. 15 November 2017.
  4. ^ Bombaywala, Suhit (16 December 2022). "Inked in India; Fountain Pens and A Story of Make and Unmake by Bibek Debroy and Sovan Roy". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  5. ^ "Padma Award Winners 2025 Full List: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri". Bru Times News.
  6. ^ "Padma Awards 2025 announced". pib.gov.in.
  7. ^ "All set for Sansad TV launch; Karan Singh, Tharoor, Kant, Sanyal to host special shows". Tribuneindia.com.
  8. ^ "PM Narendra Modi to launch Sansad TV on September 15: Report". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 10 September 2021.
  9. ^ "संसद टीवी : 15 सितंबर को प्रधानमंत्री मोदी करेंगे नए चैनल का शुभारंभ, लोकसभा व राज्यसभा टीवी का हुआ इसमें विलय". Amarujala.com.
  10. ^ "PM Modi to launch Sansad TV on September 15, say sources". The Times of India.
  11. ^ "When will Sansad TV go live? Why Parliament proceedings need a channel to be aired instead of LS and RS TV?". Firstpost.com. 15 September 2021.
  12. ^ AB Wire (23 November 2022). "Bibek Debroy conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award in Australia". American Bazaar. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  13. ^ ILA. "ILA Emeritus Fellows" (PDF). Insolvency Law Academy. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  14. ^ "Bibek Debroy, a leading economist and head of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM), died". Bru Times News.
  15. ^ "Bibek Debroy, chairman of PM's economic advisory council and top economist, passes away at 69". Hisndustan Times.
  16. ^ "Bibek Debroy, Chairman of PM's Economic Advisory Council, dies at 69 - CNBC TV18". CNBCTV18. 1 November 2024. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  17. ^ "Bibek_Debroy" (PDF).
  18. ^ Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor; United Nations Development Programme (1 January 2008). Making the law work for everyone. Vol. II. New York: Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor : United Nations Development Programme. p. ii. ISBN 9789211262209.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  19. ^ "Bibek Debroy". CPR. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  20. ^ Kumar, Amit. "Jharkhand at a glance". Jharkhand State Portal. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  21. ^ "Report of the Committee for Mobilization of Resources for Major Railway Projects and Restructuring of Railway Ministry and Railway Board" (PDF). Indianrailways.gov.in. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  22. ^ "Economists Arvind Panagariya, Bibek Debroy appointed to Niti Aayog". HuffPost India. 5 January 2015.
  23. ^ "Seven Questions about Niti Aayog that Modi govt should answer". Economic Times Blog. 5 January 2015.
  24. ^ Desk, P.M.B. (6 September 2022). "Pune: Veteran economist Bibek Debroy appointed as Deccan College's new chancellor". punemirror.com. {{cite news}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  25. ^ UNI. "Dr Bibek Debroy appointed as Chancellor of Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics". United News of India. UNI. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  26. ^ Loksatta (10 July 2023). "भांडारकर स्मृती पुरस्कार डॉ. विवेक देबरॉय यांना जाहीरभांडारकर स्मृती पुरस्कार डॉ. विवेक देबरॉय यांना जाहीर". Loksatta. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  27. ^ Bhattacharya, A. K. (17 March 2018). "Book review: Bibek Debroy's translation of the Ramayana is easy to navigate". Business Standard India. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  28. ^ "Game of Thrones". The Indian Express. 9 June 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  29. ^ "The Bhagavata Purana book review: Of times and tales past". The Indian Express. 4 May 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  30. ^ "A Spectacular Epic". The Book Review, Monthly Review of Important Books. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  31. ^ "Review: The Mahabharata: Volume 5". Hindustan Times. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  32. ^ "Book Review | Shiva Purana Volume 1, Translated by Bibek Debroy: Profound Work in Simple Terms". 24 September 2023.
  33. ^ Chikermane, Gautam (20 October 2023). "The Dance of Shiva". Open Magazine. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  34. ^ Agarwal, Abhinav (June 2024). "Ashtavakra Gita: A translation and a personal perspective". The Sunday Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  35. ^ Regier, Willis Goth (2018). "The Valmiki Ramayana trans. Bibek Debroy, and: The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki trans. Robert P. Goldman and Sally J. Sutherland Goldman (review)". MLN. 133 (5): 1443–1445. doi:10.1353/mln.2018.0095. ISSN 1080-6598. S2CID 165516655.

Bibliography

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Economics

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Indology and others

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Major unabridged translations

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The following books were all published by Penguin.

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