Economist Abhijit Sen, a former Planning Commission member and one of the country's foremost experts on rural economy, died on Monday night after a brief illness. He was 72 years old.
He was a member of Planning Commission from 2004 to 2014, when Manmohan Singh was the prime minister.
"He suffered a heart attack around 11 PM. We rushed him to the hospital, but it was all over by the time we got there," said Dr Pronab Sen, his brother.
In a career spanning more than four decades, Abhijit Sen taught economics at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, and held several important government positions including the chair of the Commission of Agricultural Cost and Prices.
In 2004, he was made a member of the Planning Commission – then the apex policy making body on national economic matters – for a five-year-term, and reappointed in 2009.
Born in Jamshedpur on November 18, 1950, Sen, whose father Samar Sen was a World Bank economist, studied physics at New Delhi's St. Stephen's college before switching to pursue a doctoral degree in economics from Cambridge University.
Sen had been suffering from breathing-related ailments for the past few years, said his brother, Pronab.
He is survived by wife, Jayati Ghosh -- also a well-known economist --and daughter Jahnavi.
(With inputs from PTI)
