Bibek Debroy (I955-2024): The Polymath

Bibek Debroy, who passed away this morning in New Delhi, was a polymath who combined professional work as an economist with a life-long passion for Indian classics. A modern translator of the Mahabharata and multiple Puranas, he was also a prolific columnist who popularised not only Indian myths and stories but also wrote on the pressing economic issues of the day.

Just days before he passed away, he sent his last column to Open on a story from the Matsya Purana about the Devi and Viraka. (Don’t Be Suspicious of Mother’s Motive, Open, 11 November). The story was about the nature of anger, rage and its effects. The story was to be continued in the next edition and he wrote, “What Viraka said will be left for the next time.” That story will remain incomplete.

Debroy was educated at Presidency College, Kolkata, the Delhi School of Economics and then Cambridge. At Cambridge, he studied under Frank Hahn, a neoclassical economist in a setting that was Marxist. But he was removed from ideological attachments that define such settings. That was also the time when Indian policymaking was rigidly ideological and had little room for new ideas or course correction in the face of evidence that highlighted failures.

In India, he worked for the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies and later for a number of state governments as well as the Centre. He was appointed a member of the NITI Aayog in 2017. Later, in 2017 he was appointed the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC). During this period he headed a committee to restructure the Indian Railways. As an academic, Debroy once taught at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics between 1983 and 1987. He made a second return to the Institute earlier this year but then left as his health deteriorated.

It is hard to sum his life and his many accomplishments in a few words. He blended an interest in understanding India’s past with contemporary analysis of its economic problems. But what stood out was his ability to lucidly present arguments through columns as well as technical writings.

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