Amartya Sen's one achievement as Economist.

Just the other day, I read-

Eminent economist Amartya Sen said that despite being the fastest-growing economy the country has taken a "quantum jump in the wrong direction" since 2014. 

This is odd. Sen had said that India was trailing its neighbours in South Asia in 2011 at the Delhi Economic Conclave.

The Hindu reported as follows-

India’s track record of dealing with the human development issues is worse than neighbours like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, Nobel laureate and noted economist Amartya Sen said on Friday.

“The tragedy is that not only China, but even Bangladesh is now doing better on almost every one of these social indicators than India is doing .... Every country Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are ahead already,” Professor Sen said, while addressing Delhi Economics Conclave organised by CII.

He said that among the six South Asian countries, India has slipped to fifth position from second in 1990 on parameters like education, life expectancy, immunisation, maternal mortality, etc.

Only Pakistan is below India on human development index, he said, adding that “because...(it has) its own problems connected to terrorism”.

Was Sen telling the truth? No. Bangladesh scored 0.557 in 2011 on the Human Development Index.  Nepal scored 0.538. Bhutan scored 0.581. India scored 0.59.

 Everyone knows that governance deteriorated between 2011 and 2014 when Modi was elected. So how could any 'quantum jump' after than date have resulted in a deterioration in the country's standing? The fact is the largest year on year increase in the index was in the year following Modi's taking power.

He also said that due to moving backwards, the country is now second worst in the region.
"Things have gone pretty badly wrong... It has taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction since 2014. We are getting backwards in the fastest-growing economy," Sen said.
Twenty years ago, he added, of the six countries in this region -- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, India was the second best after Sri Lanka.
"Now, it is the second worst. Pakistan has managed to shield us from being the worst."

Sen is only an economist in the sense that he very thriftily recycles his bromides word for word- e.g. his using the phrase '20 years ago' as if it  were 2011 instead of 2018- no matter whether it is his pal, Manmohan, or his bete noire, Modi, who is PM. This is his one achievement as an economist.

The problem with continually crying Wolf is that nobody will believe you if you say 'ever since the new Mayor was elected, there has been a quantum leap in wolf sightings.'