Abhijit Banerjee, this year’s Nobel Prize winner forEconomics, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

The Indian-origin Nobel laureate called on the PM in hisfirst visit to the country after the announcement of the award last week.Callingthe meeting with Banerjee “excellent”, the prime minister said they had a“healthy and extensive interaction on various subjects”.

“Excellent meeting with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee. Hispassion towards human empowerment is clearly visible. We had a healthy andextensive interaction on various subjects. India is proud of hisaccomplishments. Wishing him the very best for his future endeavours,” the PMsaid in a tweet.Abhijit Banerjee, along with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer,were awarded the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for their approach toalleviate global poverty.

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Banerjee studied at the University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University andHarvard University.

The Nobel winner has come in for some criticism as well forhis comments on the Indian economy. In a presentation recently, Banerjee hadsaid that the Indian economy was doing “very badly” and it was “going into atailspin”.Reacting to this statement, Union minister Piyush Goyal last weeksaid that he did not take Banerjee’s criticism of India’s economic policies andthe economic slowdown seriously “as he belongs to Left ideology which has beenrejected by India.”

The Nobel laureate landed in Delhi on Saturday. Since then,it has been a hectic routine for him including a visit to his alma materJawaharlal Nehru University, a series of interviews, programmes and a bookrelease function.

Banerjee will go to Kolkata - his home town - on Tuesdayevening to meet his family. He will fly out of India in the early hours ofThursday.