New Delhi: Bibek Debroy, the chairman of Prime Minister’s economic advisory council, has passed away. He was 69.
Debroy was an economist and frequent columnist. At the time of his passing, he was chairman of the Expert Committee for Infrastructure Classification and Financing Framework for Amrit Kaal under the Union finance ministry.
He has been a member of the government think tank NITI Aayog from 2015 till 2019.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015.
Debroy was born in Shillong in Meghalaya. He studied at Kolkata’s Presidency College, the Delhi School of Economics at the national capital and Cambridge University.
He had multifaceted interests, and was known for translating the Bhagwad Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas into English.
Indian Express has published a column he wrote for the paper four days before he passed away, with a note that it was to be an “unusual column” and “short of a requiem.” He wrote in it: “The same boring news, the same boring high-decibel debates. It all seems so transient and puerile. But so am I, transient and puerile, a dot that might have been wiped off. In that event, what would have happened? A few condolences, perhaps even from important people.”
In a post on X, prime minister Narendra Modi noted, “Through his works, he left an indelible mark on India’s intellectual landscape.”
