The daughter of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Tuesday refuted numerous rumors in Indian media that the economist had passed away, claiming he was “totally fine.”
Nandana Sen shared a photo of herself and her father on social media, confirming that the 89-year-old was “busy as ever”.
“He is teaching two courses a week at Harvard, working on his gender book”, Nandana said on X, previously known as Twitter.
The fake news spread after a recently created account on X named after Claudia Goldin, who on Monday won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics, posted “a terrible news” about Sen’s death.
Soon, Sen’s supporters swamped the social media network with condolence comments.
Reports based on the hoax were published by a number of widely read Indian media outlets, including the Deccan Herald, Times of India, and news agency Press Trust of India.
Sen’s daughter appeared on X to refute the rumors.
“We just spent a wonderful week together w/ family in Cambridge — his hug as strong as always last night when we said bye!” she said.
The account that posted the misinformation was taken down soon afterwards.
Harvard professor Sen was the first person from Asia to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, and news of his win in 1998 sent India into jubilation.
Sen was born in 1933 into a family of academics in what is now the Indian state of West Bengal; his first name, Sen, means “immortal” in English.
He spent a large portion of his formative years in Dhaka, which is now in Bangladesh. He later studied economics in Cambridge, where he eventually spent more than three decades working as Trinity College’s master.
Additionally, he held positions at Oxford and the London School of Economics during his long academic career.
