Kolkata, Nobel laureate couple Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee and Esther Duflo will work with the West Bengal government in increasing awareness about the novel coronavirus disease now raging in the country.

Sources close to the couple said Banerjee had a telephonic conversation with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on coming up with a campaign about the disease by using the Randomised Controlled Trial method which they have used successfully in economics experiments by conducting numerous practical micro-level field experiments with small sample sizes.

Banerjee and Duflo will devise the campaign in coordination with the state government and local doctors.

The team of researchers in Kolkata who work in association with Banerjee and Duflo will implement the campaign to be done through mobile phone.

Banerjee, an Indian-American, jointly bagged the prestigious award along with his wife Esther Duflo and economist Michael Kremer last year.

Announcing the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the research conducted by the troika has considerably improved the ability to fight global poverty.