Presidency gears up to felicitate Abhijit

Kolkata: Presidency University (PU) is gearing up to felicitate Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, who is scheduled to arrive at the city on Tuesday night.

"We are not sure whether he will be able to make it to the campus of our university. But we are having all arrangements in place for a befitting felicitation if he manages to make it. Otherwise, we will be sending the specially designed certificate that we have made for honouring him at his residence in the city," said Debajyoti Konar, Registrar of PU.

Banerjee will reach the city at 11 pm and will leave on Wednesday evening. The university has also designed a scroll in parity with Banerjee's achievement and the 200 years of the varsity that was completed in 2017.

"We are having arrangements in place so that the scroll can be handed over to him at his residence if he fails to turn up here," a senior official of PU said.

The varsity has already announced its plans of coming up with a sketch of the Nobel laureate as a mark of tribute to him. The sketch with 3D embossing will be created by a noted architect, matching the style of the Wall of Fame of the university that was created during the bicentenary celebration of the varsity in 2017. The place of installation will be decided soon. "Presidency has been like a second home to him. He has always been in touch with academics in the university and it

has been more than one occasion when he had paid visit here as an alumni," Konar added.

Banerjee did his Bachelor's degree from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1981. He then went to pursue a Master's degree in economics at JNU, Delhi in 1983 and subsequently moved to the USA to obtain a PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1988.