Who and Why | Nobel Prize in Economics 2018

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award 2018 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel commonly referred as the Nobel Prize in Economics to:

William D. Nordhaus (one half of the prize) "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis" (on left of picture below)

Paul M. Romer (one half of the prize) 'for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis" (on right of picture below)

Did colonial loot and slave trade fund this Ivy League school?

Yale University is one of the oldest universities in USA having it's roots in the Connecticut Collegiate School founded in 1701 in the colony of New Haven. It is a premier Ivy League University ranked consistently as one of the top across the globe. It is the alma-mater of a numerous Nobel Laureates and a number of US Presidents as well.

But did it's founding fathers took grants from someone about whom history is not that glorious? I first read about this in a book by Indian economist Sanjeev Sanyal.

The university is named after a Boston born businesses man Elihu Yale who was once the director of British East India Company as well. As we all know to an extent the treacherous ways adopted by promoters of the company to plunder the wealth of India. In the process some of company officials became ultra rich and Elihu Yale was one of them.

Elihu Yale joined the East India Company as a low level clerk who rose to the position of director of the company. He was the President of Madras (Fort St George) between 1684 till 1692. As the President of Madras Yale was at the node of the slave trade routes in the Indian Ocean which linked South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. As per documents available from Fort St George, a minimum of 10 slaves were ordered into outbound European ships. It cannot be said that Yale was the only one who profited from this endeavor but he was surely one of the.

The other half of 2nd October

26th January, 15th August and 2nd October are holidays which no Indian would ever miss. These are dates which are embossed in the collective memory of the nation and are the only three national holidays which have a fixed place in the calendar of any organization, public or private, in any part of the country. There are a few other national holidays but the dates of them vary from state to state or from year to year. But these 3 dates are never ever contested.