Banerjee and French-American Duflo were associated with Bandhan Bank in 2011, when it was a micro-finance institution (MFI), for analysing the impact assessment of anti-poverty programme - Targetting the Hard-Core Poor (THP).
"They (Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo) have closely worked with Bandhan for the THP programme. We share a close relation with both of them since 2006," MD and CEO of Bandhan Bank, Chandrasekhar Ghosh, told PTI.
The paper authored by Banerjee and Duflo -- Targetting the Hard-Core Poor - An impact Assessment -- focused on baseline and post-programme surveys with nearly 1,000 households.
"We randomly invited half (of the 1,000 households) to participate in Bandhan's 'Targeting the Hard-Core Poor' (THP) programme," they had said.
The theory behind the programme was that the poor are trapped in extreme poverty, due to lack of assets and inability to use financial intermediation.
Banerjee, Duflo and Michael Kremer jointly won this year's Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for their 'experimental approach to alleviating global poverty'.
The prize reflects on the fact that somehow while we often pay lip service to the welfare of all, this is something that not always (is the) immediate focus of a prize like this, Banerjee said in an interview to NobelPrize.org.
He said he is delighted that some attention was thrown this way."
Not that I think all the other things that they get prizes for aren't important. But it does make people who work in this area feel a little more enthused. Lots of people in this world, who do real things, not people like us, people who do real things, this is somewhat of a prize for all of them, he said.
Banerjee, his wife Duflo and Harvard professor Kremer jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".
Banerjee, 58, and French-American Duflo both work at the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) while Kremer is at Harvard University.
Banerjee said he has learnt an enormous amount from talking to people on the ground. The set of people I really owe enormous amount to is the people who are both the people with whom we work with, whose lives we study in many ways, but also the people who work with them.
Crediting NGOs like Pratham and Seva Mandir for the work they do at the grassroots level, he said he has learned a huge amount from these organisations. For example, my personal experience that these organisations that work on a very large scale with very poor people has certainly been very important for us.
He added that "one should not have too much faith in one's own rationality and you should not have too much faith in the rationality of anybody else either."
"We all learn together about the way the world is. And I think it's an antidote to wishful thinking of all kinds.
Banerjee told MIT News it was wonderful to receive the award, adding you don't get this lucky many times in your life.
He noted that experiment-based work in development economics was a little-explored area of research 20 years ago but has grown significantly since then.
The kind of work we've done over the years, when we started, was marginal in economics, he said. In that light, he added, the Nobel award is "great for the development field" within economics, reflecting the significance of work done by many of his colleagues.
Banerjee was educated at the University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D in 1988. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the MIT.
In 2003, Banerjee founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), along with Duflo and Sendhil Mullainathan, and he remains one of its directors. He also served on the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
J-PAL, a global network of antipoverty researchers that conducts field experiments, has now become a major center of research, backing work across the world.
Duflo, the 46-year-old former advisor to ex-US president Barack Obama, is the second woman and the youngest ever to win the economics prize.
"We are incredibly happy and humbled," Duflo was quoted as saying by the MIT News. "We feel very fortunate to see this kind of work being recognised."
We're fortunate to see this kind of work being recognised, Duflo told MIT News, noting that their work was born at MIT and supported by MIT.
She called the work in this area a collective effort and said that we could not have created a movement without hundreds of researchers and staff members. The Nobel award, she said, also represented this collective enterprise, and was larger than our work.
Duflo added that she and Banerjee were absolutely delighted to share this award with Kremer, calling his work an inspiration for antipoverty researchers.
Kremer is a former MIT faculty member who served at the Institute from 1993 to 1999, and remains an affiliated professor with J-PAL; he is currently the Gates Professor of Developing Societies at Harvard University.
The three award-winners have known each other since the mid-1990s and have long viewed their research efforts as being intellectually aligned.
Nancy Rose, department head and the Charles P Kindleberger Professor of Applied Economics, said, Esther and Banerjee have been exceptional colleagues and contributors to the MIT economics department."
Their passion for the power of economics to do good in the world inspires us all, and their generosity and compassion in working with students and colleagues has propelled countless careers forward. We couldn't be more thrilled for this recognition of all they have done."
Rose added that Abhijit, Esther, and Michael's work shows economic research at its finest. They have not only transformed the way economists approach the study of poverty and development economics, but deployed their findings to improve the lives of hundreds of million people across the globe. Their founding of MIT's J-PAL has created a vibrant network of scholars who are bringing evidence-based antipoverty policy into every corner of the world.
Showing excellent composure, Banerjee last week went to sleep for an hour after getting to know that he had got the coveted award in Economics jointly with Esther Duflo - his wife - and Michael Kremer.
For his mother Nirmala Banerjee, a retired professor of Economics, that's how it should be.
"I don't thing that is something one should go on dancing about. Ok. He's got some good work, he has got some recognition. We're all happy about it. That's it," the octogenarian Nirmala Banerjee told IANS.
On the family, especially Abhijit, showing great equanimity in reacting to attacks - some of them personal and below the belt - mainly by centre's ruling BJP leaders, she said it was because of the influence of her late husband Dipak Banerjee, a London School of Economics alumni and legendary professor of Economics in Presidency University.
"Abhijit's father was also very rational, very sober, very matured person. And we all in our way try to model ourselves after him. He was a very wonderful man. And we are a close family, that's it, she said.
The Nobel winner landed in Delhi on Saturday - his first visit to the country after claiming the prize. Since then, it has been a hectic routine for the Presidency College and Jawaharlal Nehru University alumnus, with a series of interviews, programmes, a book release function and meetings lined up.
Banerjee will be coming on a short visit to his city from late Tuesday. He will fly out in the early hours of Thursday.
Nirmala says she hasn't been able to speak to her son after he arrived in the national capital.
"Sorry. I have no ideas what his programmes are. I haven't talked to him since he got to Delhi. He hasn't had much time, she said.
"Oh yes. I am looking forward to meet him. But I had met him in July also. So that's not a long gap".
Banerjee is a foodie, and relishes fish whenever he is in Kolkata. Nirmala has decided to treat him a delicious home cooked spread. On the platter will be fish kalia, mutton kebab and rosogollar payesh (Bengali styled pudding made of the sugary syrupy, rosogolla).
"It's nothing very special, I'm only ordering whatever he likes, home food.
"Both my sons meet me regularly. When they come I try and think about what they like to eat and get it done. But it is not that I am making hordes of dishes. Just I make the dishes they like," she said.
Unlike other laureates, who arrived in tuxedos and fancy Red Carpet dresses, the couple glorified the prestigious occasion in traditional Indian attire.
Abhijit wore a black bandhgala jacket paired with an off-white dhoti, and wife Esther wore a blue, two-toned saree, while Michael Kremer was spotted wearing a black suit.
'The Nobel Prize' tweeted "Watch Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer receive their medals and diplomas at the #NobelPrize award ceremony today. Congratulations!
Watch Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer receive their medals and diplomas at the #NobelPrize award ceremony today. Congratulations!
They were awarded the 2019 Prize in Economic Sciences “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” pic.twitter.com/c3ltP7EXcF
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) December 10, 2019
They were awarded the 2019 Prize in Economic Sciences "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."
The Twitter post was flooded with comments and congratulatory wishes from across the world, with 1.4K retweets and 3.6K likes.
The three economists were awarded medals and the prize money of nine million Swedish krona (approx Rs 6.7 crore), which will be shared among them.
As "#AbhijitBanerjee" trends on Twitter, tweeple are praising the couple's attire, saying "Moment of pride for Indians as Abhijeet Banerjee and his wife received biggest prize in the world... wearing Indian attire is icing on cake".
While another wrote: "We live in an era where people are banning movies and pre-wedding shootings for cultural in-appropriation, whereas progressive Indians like #AbhijitBanerjee and her better half are showing the world what Indian culture is. Thank you for making us proud sir."
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Banerjee, an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Calcutta, is the second person of Indian Origin to be awarded the prize after Amartya Sen who received it in 1988.
He is the 10th person of Indian origin or citizenship to win a Nobel.
(IANS)