The Economic Times

You buy Mercedes, I want to invest in my education: What Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay, daughter of a bus driver, once told colleagues who questioned her ambitions

Navi Pillay, the South African lawyer of Indian origin, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her work defending human rights and international law. Despite growing up in poverty under apartheid, she prioritised education over luxury, famously telling colleagues she wanted to invest in knowledge rather than buy Mercedes-Benz cars, before earning a doctorate from Harvard Law School.