Written by Aishwarya KhoslaJaipur | January 17, 2026 06:09 AM IST 3 min readThe dust and din of the Jaipur Literature Festival formed a fitting backdrop for a conversation on global inequality. It was here that Esther Duflo, the Nobel Prize–winning economist, reflected on the 15-year update to her influential book ‘Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty’, co-authored with her husband and fellow Nobel laureate, Abhijit Banerjee.“We got plenty right and plenty wrong,” she said. The new edition includes fresh chapters on social protection and climate change. “Climate change disproportionately affects the poor. And within the poor, it disproportionately affects women,” she said in an exclusive conversation with The Indian Express, describing her visit to the Sundarbans, where women left behind by migrant husbands work through deadly heat waves.“They have no access to air conditioning. They cannot go to the one hotel that has it, they’re not allowed. They literally die of heat exposure,” she said. Social systems, she argued, must be redesigned to protect them: “What do we do to allow people not to work when it’s very hot?”Soon, Duflo will also soon relocate from MIT to Zurich. The move is professional and geopolitical. “With the disengagement of the US from international development and climate, it is time for other actors to take over,” she said. She envisions a more multipolar leadership emerging from Indian philanthropy, European institutions, and voices across the Global South.Zurich, she hopes, will help shift that centre of gravity.That realignment will take institutional form in July 2026, when Duflo and Banerjee join the University of Zurich. Using external funds provided by the Lemann Foundation, the two economists will establish a new centre for development economics, education and public policy, a concrete step, she said, towards shifting the field’s centre of gravity.Within economics itself, Duflo sees persistent barriers, especially for women and scholars outside the US and Europe. The culture, she said, remains “a little aggressive”, with seminars that feel like “boxing matches instead of places of exchange”. When she once submitted a paper on Indonesia, an editor told her, “Indonesia tells me nothing about Indiana.” Her reply was swift: “Indiana tells me nothing about Indonesia. There are many more people in Indonesia than Indiana.”Story continues below this adLooking ahead, she is concerned about artificial intelligence undermining one of India’s key growth engines. “India’s middle class rose through IT and back-office jobs—exactly the roles AI could replace,” she said. “We need to get ahead of this trend.”On the recent World Bank estimates showing a sharp decline in Indian poverty, she urged caution. “The data is difficult to parse. I would take it with healthy skepticism and look to ground surveys.” On rising global inequality, she was clear: “It does produce political fallout. This is exactly what’s happening.”As the festival crowd buzzed outside, Duflo turned towards her next session—her work, like the world she studies, continually evolving in the face of heat, power, and change.Aishwarya Khosla is a key editorial figure at The Indian Express, where she spearheads and manages the Books & Literature and Puzzles & Games sections, driving content strategy and execution. Her extensive background across eight years also includes previous roles at Hindustan Times, where she provided dedicated coverage of politics, books, theatre, broader culture, and the Punjabi diaspora. Aishwarya's specialty lies in book reviews and literary criticism, apart from deep cultural commentary where she focuses on the complex interplay of culture, identity, and politics. She is a proud recipient of The Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections. This fellowship required intensive study and research into political campaigns, policy analysis, political strategy, and communications, directly informing the analytical depth of her cultural commentary. As the dedicated author of The Indian Express newsletters, Meanwhile, Back Home and Books 'n' Bits, Aishwarya provides consistent, curated, and trusted insights directly to the readership. She also hosts the podcast series Casually Obsessed. Her established role and her commitment to examining complex societal themes through a nuanced lens ensure her content is a reliable source of high-quality literary and cultural journalism. Write to her at aishwaryakhosla.ak@gmail.com or aishwarya.khosla@indianexpress.com. You can follow her on Instagram: @aishwarya.khosla, and X: @KhoslaAishwarya. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd