When it comes to Bibek Debroy, two words, ‘polyglot’ and ‘polymath’, promptly come to mind. Post-Independence, India has been graced with numerous scholars and some ideologues masquerading as scholars, as well as propagandists masquerading as intellectuals. Unfortunately, very few of the lot have consistently kept an open mind and studied issues and contemporary events with the thirst of an eager student. Fewer still have successfully managed to bridge the past with the present and the traditional with the modern. Debroy belonged to this select club. One won’t find many who can elaborate on the forces of “creative destruction” as described by Joseph Schumpeter and simultaneously decode the significance of the hidden messages in the Puranas.

“Debroy Sir”, as this author called him, passed away too soon, at the young age of 69; he still had tons of wisdom to offer. But then, such is life. The co-author had last met Debroy Sir in his Niti Ayog office on September 10. The meeting involved a personal exchange of ideas and also an update on the work that the CVoter Foundation had been doing for the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister since October 2022. Sir looked visibly unwell. After talking a bit about the 2024 Lok Sabha election results and some more about the next report CVoter Foundation would submit, the co-author left with a promise from Sir that they would meet again after Deepavali. On the way out, the co-author checked with Mr. Krishnan, his secretary, and asked about Sir’s health. Krishnan had confirmed that he was very unwell.

How Debroy Fought Against Obsolete Laws

Many would write about Debroy’s tremendous capacity to straddle the world of ancient wisdom alongside modern dilemmas that affect the ordinary citizen. He toiled through tens of thousands of pages of “laws” dating back to the 19th century when the British ruled India. Hundreds of obsolete laws have been eliminated since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014. Some credit for that is definitely due to Debroy, who unflinchingly researched, wrote and talked about the damage such silly laws were doing to India. Even till recently, Debroy was persistent with his efforts in identifying and red-flagging needless regulations, rules and red tape. And while doing this, he managed to find time to translate dozens of ancient texts from Sanskrit into easy English that even young Indians could relate to. The output he produced was simply staggering. That was not all. The authors have seldom come across a more prolific columnist in contemporary India. The issues that he so deftly analysed without ideological posturing and verbose English should be a lesson for budding scholars and analysts.

But what the authors admired most about him was his integrity and spine. For many years, Debroy headed the research activities of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, which was headed by the then UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her close advisors. Sometime after the UPA came to power in 2004, the Foundation started rating and ranking states on their performance based on a series of governance parameters. The Foundation ranked Gujarat, then led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, as the best-performing state. According to various media reports, the Congress top brass was very upset with this. The differences were too deep, and Debroy resigned. As a dignified person, he never publicly talked about the manner in which he had to leave the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. He was also malevolently targeted on social media by a section of people. To his credit, Debroy simply preferred to ignore the abuse.

Blunt And Open

Debroy was doing all this even as he served as the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister. Some think that the position is largely a ceremonial one. But he absolutely did not fall into the category of a happy and satisfied ‘courtier’. Over the years, the authors personally presented some of the most unflattering data points to him. But to our surprise, he understood, and rather than softening the pinch, he always asked us to point things out even more bluntly, if possible. He believed our job was to dig out the bad news on economic matters upfront from the public perception data that we collect. Some of the sharpest minds in India have been members of the advisory board under him, and many institutions, big and small, have conducted research on its behalf on a range of issues.

For the co-author, the passing away of Debroy Sir is also a personal loss. More than 40 years ago, he was a Master’s student at the Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics in Pune, where Debroy was a young professor. Since then, he has considered Debroy Sir to be a mentor. The lead author regrets not meeting him more often. He has seldom met a scholar with such an open mind, a blunt but fair attitude, and a unique sense of humour. For the lead author, what was most admirable about Debroy Sir was his devotion to data.

India needs credible data. And it needed a polymath giant like Bibek Debroy.

(Yashwant Deshmukh is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of CVoter Foundation and Sutanu Guru is Executive Director)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences on the death of Bibek Debroy, the chairman of his economic advisory council and top economist on Friday, calling him a “towering scholar”. 

“I have known Dr. Debroy for many years. I will fondly remember his insights and passion for academic discourse. Saddened by his passing away. Condolences to his family and friends. Om Shanti. Dr. Bibek Debroy Ji was a towering scholar, well-versed in diverse domains like economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality and more,” read PM Modi’s post on X.

He also mentioned that Mr Debroy left an “indelible mark” on India’s intellectual landscape through his works.

“Beyond his contributions to public policy, he enjoyed working on our ancient texts, making them accessible to the youth,” he said.

Mr Debroy died due to intestinal obstruction at the age of 69 on Friday.

A Padma Shri Awardee, Mr Debroy has served as the chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) in Pune. He was also the chairman of the finance ministry’s expert committee for infrastructure classification and financing framework for ‘Amrit Kaal’.

Mr Debroy has made significant contributions to social issues like poverty, law reforms, and railway reforms, among others.

He was a member of NITI Aayog, the think tank of the Indian government, from 2015 to 2019. 

In 2016, Mr Debroy was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the US-India Business Summit. He was also conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Australia-India Chamber of Commerce (AICC) in 2022.

File picture of Bibek Debroy, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minster
| Photo Credit: PTI

Noted author and economist Bibek Debroy, who has been the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council chairman since 2017, has passed away on Friday (November 1, 2024) at the age of 69.

Mr. Debroy was also a member of the Niti Aayog, which had replaced the erstwhile Planning Commission, till mid-2019, and had wide-ranging interests beyond economics. He was also a Sanskrit scholar who had translated the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads into English.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Mr. Debroy on X, stating that “he left an indelible mark on India’s intellectual landscape”.

“Dr. Bibek Debroy Ji was a towering scholar, well-versed in diverse domains like economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality and more. Through his works, he left an indelible mark on India’s intellectual landscape. Beyond his contributions to public policy, he enjoyed working on our ancient texts, making them accessible to the youth,” wrote Mr. Modi.

Early years

After his schooling at Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur, Mr. Debroy had studied at Presidency College, Kolkata, followed by the Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge. Starting with a teaching stint at his alma mater Presidency College, Mr. Debroy had worked at the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune, followed by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in the national capital.

The economist also spent a year with the Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry in the mid-1990s, but one of his longest serving roles was the directorship of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS) between 1997 and 2005.

At RGICS, the think-tank affiliated with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, a report steered by Mr. Debroy and published in 2005, had created a flutter in the first year of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA regime by naming Gujarat, then under Chief Minister Narendra Modi, as India’s top State on an index to measure economic freedom.

This had led to a protracted and heated debate on the Gujarat model of development, and amid unease in the Congress ranks over the report, Mr. Debroy eventually moved on to the Punjab Haryana Delhi Chamber of Commerce and Industry or PHDCCI.

Tributes pour in

Union Minister Dharemendra Pradhan also shared his admiration of Mr. Debroy on the news of his passing.

“Deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Bibek Debroy. He was a distinguished economist, a prolific author as well as an excellent academician. He will be admired for his policy guidance on economic issues and noteworthy contributions to India’s development. His columns in newspapers enriched and enlightened millions. Dr. Debroy leaves behind a lasting legacy in the world of economics, academia and literature. My sincere condolences to his family and friends,” wrote Mr. Pradhan.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that Mr. Debroy was “always thought-provoking, commentator in the media on public issues going well beyond economics”.

“A man of unusually wide-ranging interests, Bibek Debroy was first and foremost a fine theoretical and empirical economist who worked and wrote on various aspects of the Indian economy. He also had a special skill for lucid exposition, in a manner that would make laypersons easily understand complex economic issues. Over the years, he has had numerous institutional affiliations and he left his mark everywhere,” said Mr. Ramesh.

New Delhi:

Economist and chairman of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic advisory council Bibek Debroy died today at the age of 69. A Padma Shri awardee, Mr Debroy earlier served as the chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) in Pune.

“Bibek Debroy passed away today at 7 am due to intestinal obstruction,” AIIMS Delhi said. 

PM Modi paid his condolences and described Mr Debroy as a “towering scholar”. 

“Dr. Bibek Debroy Ji was a towering scholar, well-versed in diverse domains like economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality and more. Through his works, he left an indelible mark on India’s intellectual landscape. Beyond his contributions to public policy, he enjoyed working on our ancient texts, making them accessible to the youth,” PM Modi posted on social media. 

Dr. Bibek Debroy Ji was a towering scholar, well-versed in diverse domains like economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality and more. Through his works, he left an indelible mark on India’s intellectual landscape. Beyond his contributions to public policy, he enjoyed… pic.twitter.com/E3DETgajLr

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 1, 2024

Mr Debroy was educated in Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur; Presidency College, Kolkata; Delhi School of Economics; and Trinity College, Cambridge.

He had worked in Presidency College, Kolkata; Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi; and also as the Director of a Ministry of Finance/UNDP project on legal reforms.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan described the economist as an “excellent academician”.

Deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Bibek Debroy. He was a distinguished economist, a prolific author as well as an excellent academician. He will be admired for his policy guidance on economic issues and noteworthy contributions to India’s development. His columns in… pic.twitter.com/y1niSMlxU7

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) November 1, 2024

“Deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Bibek Debroy. He was a distinguished economist, a prolific author as well as an excellent academician. He will be admired for his policy guidance on economic issues and noteworthy contributions to India’s development. His columns in newspapers enriched and enlightened millions. Dr. Debroy leaves behind a lasting legacy in the world of economics, academia and literature. My sincere condolences to his family and friends. May Almighty grant Sadgati to the departed. Om Shanti,” Mr Pradhan posted on social media. 

Mr Debroy was also a Member of NITI Aayog up to June 5, 2019. He has authored/edited several books, papers and popular articles and has also been a Consulting/Contributing Editor with several newspapers.