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Abstract
This paper examines the major economic contributions of Amartya Sen, especially in the area of human development. Amartya Sen is an Indian economist and winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 for his contributions to welfare economics and his work on poverty / famine, human development theory as well as gender aspects in economic development. Since the publication of the first human development report in 1990, the focus of development economics has shifted from national income accounting to people centered policies. According to Sen, the basic purpose of development is to enlarge human freedom. The process of development is to expand human capabilities by expanding the choices that the people have in their full and creative living. People are both the beneficiaries of such development and the agents of the progress as well as the change that they bring about. This process must benefit all individuals equitably and build on the participation of each of them.
Key words: Amartya Sen Contribution, Capability Approach, Human Development, Approach, Entitlement Approach
Introduction
Amartya Sen occupies a unique position among modern economists. He is an outstanding economic theorist, a world authority on social choice and welfare economics. He is carrying out path-breaking work on appraising the effectiveness of investment in poor countries and more recently, on the economic analysis of famines. He has greatly influenced the international organizations such as the United National Development Organisation (UNDP), International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Bank. Over the years, he introduced innovative solutions to help underdeveloped countries to cope with social problems like poverty, famine, gender inequality, human rights and biased liberalism. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to him for his work in welfare economics in 1998 and also honoured by the then President of India with the Bharat Ratna in 1999.
Amartya Sen made remarkable contribution to development economics on the one hand and welfare economics on the other. According to him, human development may be regarded as a blend of both Development Economics and Welfare economics. Further, Prof. Sen probed into choice of techniques in development planning and subsequently moved to issues of social welfare including poverty and famines. The Human Development Index (HDI) constructed by the UNDP...