Nobel Prize for Poor Economics

Growth economics gave way to development economics, by evolving measures like Human Development Index (HDI), Gender Inequality Index (GII) to address the long term need to improve human development capabilities. Developing economies like India have unfortunately not given adequate attention to quality dimensions in primary education, health care and sanitation. This year’s NobelPrize winners in economics have made a yeoman contribution to development economics by using Randomized Control Trial (RCT) tools to determine what works for people to embrace higher human development. This paper brings out the evolution of development economics and the design of RCT to arrive at startling f indings in the f ield of education, health; by combining, handholding with incentives in such trials. It brings out the def icient areas where India is yet to catch up such as Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).And why it’s necessary to abdicate ideological blinkers in pursuit of economic pragmatism to promote socio economic justice. While there are contrarian viewpoints regarding universalisation of RCT f indings, there is unanimity that these are refreshing tool to make an objective assessment how to f ight poverty, illiteracy and ill health.