'Baba is fine': Amartya's daughter scotches rumours of dad's death

KOLKATA: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was "totally fine" and "busy as ever", his daughter Nandana Deb Sen clarified on Tuesday evening after an outpouring of condolence messages on social media following fake news that the economist had passed away.

"Friends, thanks for your concern, but it's fake news: Baba is totally fine. We just spent a wonderful week together w/ family in Cambridge - his hug as strong as always last night when we said bye! He is teaching 2 courses a week at Harvard, working on his gender book - busy as ever!" Nandana posted alongside a photograph of her daughter Meghla hugging her grandfather. Nandana, too, is in the photo.

It was a social media post on an unverified X account of economist-historian Cla-udia Goldin, this year's winner of the Nobel in Economics, that had triggered a furore on social media.

Nandana's clarification was met with relief, not only in Sen's hometown of Santiniketan but in Kolkata and the world over.

Sen received the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998. He was also awarded the Bharat Ratna and France's Legion d'Honneur. At 89, he remains active and has given no hint of retirement. He remains rooted to India and visits his home Pratichi in Santiniketan every year.