Moneer Alam Is No More

Death often interferes with such suddenness that one is left completely speechless. It is difficult to reconcile with the passing of Moneer Alam. Only the other day was he moving around in the corridors and exchanging notes over email.

A stalwart in population ageing studies, Alam rose to prominence through tireless effort. He retired a couple of years back from the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), New Delhi, where he was professor in the Population Research Centre (PRC). His research interests covered a number of issues: human resource development, health and poverty, population ageing in India and South Asia, old-age income security, elderly health and well-being, elderly social capital and start-ups. He was senior consultant, Transcultural Studies on Ageing, a joint project of IEG and Heidelberg University, at the time of his death. Between 2014 and 2016, he was the coordinator of the United Nations Population Fund-sponsored research and advocacy project “Building a Knowledge Base on Population Ageing in India.” He was also a national consultant, World Health Organization (WHO) (India) and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, from July 1993 to June 1995. His depth of understanding on health-related issues was noteworthy. On population ageing, even undergraduate students kept referring to his research and findings with great interest.