New York:

Stressing the use of digitisation for rapid development, the President of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, lavished praise on India for its work in this direction, which has lifted 800 million out of poverty in the last 5-6 years.

He highlighted how people in rural areas of India, are able to make payments and pay bills just on the touch of a smartphone.

“Providing the basis to rapid development, such as through digitalisation. Take, for example, the case of India…India has been able to lift 800 million people out of poverty over the last 5-6 years simply by the use of smartphones,” Francis said during his lecture at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN on the topic of ‘Accelerating progress towards Zero Hunger for the current and future generations.’

Francis emphasised the high internet penetration in India as a major factor why India has been able to benefit but not many other countries of the Global South.

“Rural farmers in India who never had a relationship with the banking system, are now able to transact all their businesses on their smartphone. They pay their bills, they receive payments for orders. 800 million people lifted out of poverty. Because there is a high level of internet penetration in India, almost everyone has a cellphone,” he said.

“That is not the case in many parts of the Global South. So, there has to be equity demands, there has to be some effort, initiative to address this inequality as an initial step in negotiating the global framework for digitalisation,” the UNGA President added.

Notably, digitisation has been one of the main focuses of the Narendra Modi government in the last 10 years. A rapid rise has been witnessed in digital payment transactions in the country in the last decade and UPI has emerged as a major contributor to it.

PM Modi has promoted the use of digitisation through the JAM initiative — Jan Dhan, Aadhar, and Mobile. Under this, people have been encouraged to open their bank accounts and every account has been linked with Aadhar.

This has helped in connecting people across the country, even in the rural areas with various government schemes and the social benefit payments reaching directly into the ban account of people.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Poverty in India has come down to below 5 per cent, claimed NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam citing the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES).

The survey, conducted between August 2022 and July 2023, provides insights into household consumption, highlighting poverty levels and the effectiveness of poverty alleviation measures implemented by the government. Mr Subrahmanyam said that the survey’s data on household consumption is a key metric for evaluating the success of poverty reduction initiatives.

The HCES findings reveal an increase in consumption, with both rural and urban areas experiencing a surge of about 2.5 times. The average monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) in urban households rose by 33.5 per cent since 2011-12 to Rs 3,510, while rural India witnessed a significant 40.42 per cent increase, reaching Rs 2,008.

“Based on this data, poverty levels in the country could be closer to 5% or less,” Mr Subrahmanyam said, as per a TOI report. 

One of the key observations from the survey is the shift in spending patterns, particularly in terms of food expenditure. Rural households, for the first time, allocated less than 50 per cent of their total expenditure to food, according to the survey.

The survey claims that the urban-rural consumption divide has narrowed from 91% in 2004-05 to 71% in 2022-23, signifying a reduction in inequality.

“In food, consumption of beverages, processed food, milk and fruits is growing – an indication of more diverse and balanced consumption,” Mr Subrahmanyam said

Mr Subrahmanyam claimed that benefits like healthcare under the Ayushman Bharat scheme and free education were not factored into the survey, suggesting that destitution and deprivation have nearly disappeared.