The two students thanked Abhijit Banerjee for helping them in education.

Indian-American economist Abhijit Banerjee, who earlier this week won the prestigious Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, has been supporting the education of two children at a school in Dehradun in Jogiwala under the Kabir Memorial Scholarship.

Aryan Thapa and Aman Dobryal, students of the Vivekanand School in Dehradun, have been receiving the Kabir Memorial Scholarship, set up by Mr Banerjee in remembrance of his son who died an untimely death, for the past three years.

The two students thanked Mr Banerjee for helping them in education.

"I want to thank him from the core of my heart for providing us the means to continue our education. I also would like to congratulate sir for winning the Nobel prize," Aryan Thapa said.

Aman Dobryal said: "I met Abhijit Ji in 2015 here, and he has kept on helping me throughout in my education. I thank him for everything he has done for us and congratulate him on his Nobel win. We are very happy for him."

Mr Banerjee has a long term connection with the Vivekanand School, as one of its founder members Gauri Majumdar was his teacher in his formative years at the South Point School in Kolkata. She was also his mother's classmate.

Mr Banerjee, his French-American wife Esther Duflo and US national Michael Kremer on Monday were awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."

Abhijit Banerjee completed his MA in Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in 1983. Later, he went on to obtain a PhD in Economics at Harvard University in 1988.

The 58-year-old Kolkata-born economist is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He joined the select list of Indians or persons of Indian origin who have been awarded the Nobel Prize.