IG Patel, the IMF and a Bengali family
In this second part of the tribute to Dr IG Patel on his centenary, I trace his years at the IMF and his meeting with a family from Dhaka.
The good news is that my tribute to Dr IG Patel became the most popular post on my blog in less than 24 hours. I consider this a measure of IG’s popularity and interest in his life and career.
The bad news is that only a few clicked the link to a more detailed post covering IG’s early life and education.
Therefore, I rewrote the first part of my original Substack post so that some essential facts about IG were covered. The chronic and incorrigible re-drafter I am, I made further additions and changes to the first part.
I concluded the first part on IG’s life and education by saying that he discovered that his father was hugely in debt. Somewhat serendipitously, thanks to IG's sterling academic career and generous testimonials from his teacher economists, he landed a secondment to the IMF. This helped him clear his father’s debt.
During his four years in Washington, D.C., IG also met with a Bengali family of four: Prof Amiya Kumar Dasgupta, his wife, daughter, and son. Prof Dasgupta had also come on a secondment to head the Fund’s South Asia Division. We discuss IG’s time at the IMF and his early friendship with the Dasguptas, a relationship which would eventually last decades.
The links to the earlier post and the first two parts are given below:
Part 1: Early Life and Education
Part 2: The IMF and a Bengali family