Stockholm (AP): The Nobel memorial prize in economics was awarded Monday to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for research into reasons why some countries succeed and others fail.

The Nobel memorial prize in economics was awarded Monday to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson for research into differences in prosperity between nations.

The three economists “have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country's prosperity,” the Nobel committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at the announcement in Stockholm.

“Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates' research helps us understand why,” it added.

Acemoglu and Johnson work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Robinson conducts his research at the University of Chicago.

“Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time's greatest challenges. The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for achieving this,” Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said.

He said their research has provided "a much deeper understanding of the root causes of why countries fail or succeed.”

Reached by the academy in Athens, Greece, where he is due to speak at a conference, Acemoglu said he was surprised and shocked by the award.

“You never expect something like this," he said.

The economics prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The central bank established it in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the 19th-century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes.

Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel Prize, it is always presented together with the others on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

 

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Bengaluru (PTI): A 46-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly blackmailing a woman using her explicit photos and videos to force her into a sexual relationship with him, police said on Saturday.

The accused, Haniyur Chandregowda, is a member of the Child Welfare Committee in Ramanagara, they said.

Obscene photos of several other women were also found on his mobile phone during examination, police said.

The case came to light after a 43-year-old woman, who works as a make-up artist, filed a complaint at the Rajarajeshwari Nagar police station on April 30, they said.

According to FIR, the woman met Chandregowda in 2021. He told her he was connected to TV serials and took her phone number on the pretext of offering make-up work. The woman had been living separately from her husband for about eight years.

The accused started visiting her house frequently and told her he was a lecturer with a good salary and promised to marry her and entered into a physical relationship with her, she alleged.

Police said Chandregowda later used private photos and videos of their intimate moments to threaten her. He allegedly warned that he would make them public if she did not agree to his demands, and continued the relationship under pressure.

The FIR also stated that in 2024, he rented a house using the woman's documents by falsely claiming to be her husband.

The woman also alleged that he used a fake ID claiming he was a Superintendent of Police to avoid paying toll fees.

She claimed that he had taken around Rs 5 lakh from her since 2021 and had not returned the money.

The FIR further stated that he added his name to the educational documents of the woman's daughter, pretending to be her husband.

Based on the complaint, a case under sections 69 (sexual intercourse by deceitful means) and 204 (impersonating a public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered. He was later arrested, a senior police officer said.