Quotes from Abhijit Banerjee

Students often say things that they will one day change their minds about, but also things that change our minds when we think about them.

We will remember UPA 2, if at all, it seems, as that period when things went mysteriously wrong - for the bribe-taking, buck-passing, foot-dragging, and general sense of paralysis.

The world's poorest people use the cheapest available fuels - dung and twigs and even leaves.

There is nothing remotely dignified about sorting through rotting trash to find something to feed your child, or asking someone for money because you have none (anyone who has contrived to give people money before they had to ask will never forget the look of gratitude in their eyes).

When I was a graduate student, I actually took a course in development economics and I thought it was the most boring thing in the world.

Healthcare expenses often wipe out families.

Gujarat is a pro-business state, where civil society organisations are comfortable with working to make sure that business does not suffer. Large parts of the rest of India, for better or worse, are very different.

Milk production is one of India's great success stories.

The AAP from the beginning made it clear that they were about changing policy and not being a symbol of purity in a corrupt world.

The degree of political pressure to make MGNREGA jobs available varies massively from state to state - which is why access to MGNREGA jobs is worse in a very poor state like Bihar than in a richer state like Andhra Pradesh.

This is why universities, and civil society more generally, are so important for a democracy like ours, founded on a genuine idealism that we have a hard time holding on to. They provide a space to question whatever we are doing in the name of things we say we believe in or might believe in.

Most economies have a fair amount of tax evasion, depending on how their data systems are.