Nirmala Banerjee, economist and mother of Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, died at a private hospital in Calcutta on Friday. She was 87.
Banerjee was admitted to RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences on November 1 after a fall at home that led to a head injury. She was on ventilator support since admission, said a senior official of the hospital.
According to the hospital official, Banerjee died at 12.35pm on Friday.
Abhijit was at the hospital, he said.
“A multi-disciplinary team of doctors including neurologists, pulmonologists and critical care specialists were involved in her treatment and, given her extremely critical condition, she was put on a ventilator and other medical support,” the hospital said in a statement.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who had paid a visit to the hospital on Thursday, posted a condolence message on her X handle on Friday.
“Deeply saddened at the demise of Prof. Nirmala Banerjee, renowned economist, and mother of Nobel laureate Prof. Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee. She breathed her last today at Kolkata. I visited her at the hospital yesterday,” Mamata wrote.
“Prof. Nirmala Banerjee was trained at the London School of Economics and was a former Professor of Economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata. She was married to eminent economist late Prof. Dipak Banerjee of the Presidency College. I came to know Nirmaladi well and have many sweet memories now. Her demise is a great loss in our public life. My deep condolences to Abhijit, Aniruddha, other family members including Esther Duflo, as well as Nirmaladi’s friends and students,” the CM wrote in her post.
Banerjee’s last rites were performed at Keoratala on Friday afternoon, Calcutta police sources said.
