A Note on Michael Lipton (1937–2023)

Michael Lipton and Diana Hunt graciously volunteered to supervise my PhD after Pramit K Chowdhury passed away. With the initiation of Ralph Grillo, who was the then dean of the School of African and Asian Studies at the University of Sussex, I had learned about Lipton for the first time at the Eighth World Economic Congress in Delhi in 1985. I did not anticipate that Lipton would eventually be my doctoral supervisor then. We established a close relationship in 1997. The research activity during his visit to Delhi was highly productive, diligent, and successful. We had previously met at the University of Sussex, Brighton public meetings, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and other conferences, where we had also met with several other intellectuals, including Hans W Singer, Barbara Harriss, Robert Chambers, John Toy, Simon Maxwell, Arjan de Haan, Deepak Nayyar, G K Chadha, J Litchfield, M Vellia, Martin Greeley, Andy Newell, Marc Williams, Mick Moore, Robert Eastwood, Jim Fairburn, Frank Ellis, P K Mishra, Kiran Pandya, Saurabh Sinha, Sanjay Kumar Naik, Mohammad Razzaque, and many more.

Lipton received almost weekly visits from me at his office; reports, books, and files were everywhere. It was an inspiring atmosphere. When we first spoke, he inquired about my research interests and I responded that I was interested in researching about generating employment opportunities in Andhra Pradesh’s rural non-farm sector. He instantly told me that everyone is talking about the non-farm sector, but I am glad that you are researching this area. This remark was very motivational for me. He always had insightful things to say at every meeting. As I understood, he was an accomplished writer who produced a lot of research and academic work. He was also an avid reader and an excellent speaker. He had a thought-provoking personality and was an enthusiastic advocate for poor rural masses, small and marginal farmers, the agriculture and the non-farm sector, land reforms, and the nutritional, health, and gender issues affecting the rural people.