India-born Abhijit Banerjee, who won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize on Monday along with fellow US-based economists Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their work on fighting poverty, said he was partly disappointed with the comments of Union minister Piyush Goyal that his suggestion of basic income scheme was rejected by India.

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“But in some ways it is very flattering to hear that all these voters were paying attention to what Abhijeet Banerjee says,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

Banerjee had endorsed Nyay, the minimum basic income scheme promised by the Congress during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Goyal congratulated Banerjee, but said “it is not necessary to agree with what he says and especially when the people of this country rejected his suggestion, there is no need to accept what he thinks".

Banerjee told CNBC-TV18 that people have voted for Modi who they genuinely admire.

“They have voted for nationalism and being tough on terror and a package of things … Mr Modi offered them a clearest vision of a different India, I think they responded to it.”

On Nyay, Banerjee said he was not a big fan of the way they (Congress) were trying to implement it because it is very difficult to find the bottom 20 percent.

First Published:Oct 19, 2019 5:09 PM IST