People in India are in “extreme pain” and the economy is still below the 2019 levels, with “small aspirations” of people becoming even smaller now, Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee has said.

He was virtually addressing students of the Ahmedabad University in Gujarat on Saturday night from the US during the varsity’s 11th annual convocation, which was also held online.

The economist was sharing his observations from a recent visit to Bengal. “You (students) are in a place where you can give back. Society needs it. We are in a time of extreme pain in India,” he said.

“I just spent some time in rural West Bengal and stories you hear about, you know, all the aspirations that have been a little bit dashed are very real...small aspirations which became smaller now,” Banerjee said.

“I think we are in a moment of great pain. The economy is still well below as against what it was in 2019. We don’t know how much below, but it is substantially below. And I am not blaming anybody, I am just saying,” said the economist, who won the Nobel Prize along with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer in 2019.

He also urged the students not to succumb to pressure from family or society in choosing their career paths but to have the courage to do what they want to do in life.

Banerjee also informed the audience that he had spent 10 days in Tihar jail during his student days at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

“When I was about to leave the JNU and go to Harvard, I was in a student demonstration and then I was taken to Tihar jail, and kept there for 10 days. When I came out, a lot of elders told me that I have ruined my career, and Harvard or the US will never let you in. They thought I should be regretful,” he said.

To make his point about choosing careers, Banerjee pointed out that two of India’s great filmmakers - Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal - were economics graduates but chose to walk a different path.