The Hindu Business Line : Financial inclusion

The World Bank’s latest estimates on global poverty, which say that India is home to almost one-third of the world’s poor, make disturbing reading. The finding that India has a higher proportion of its population living on less than $2 per day than even sub-Saharan Africa should indeed be a matter of concern, not only to the powers-that-be but for all Indians.

The indication revealed by the estimates that the rate of decline of poverty in India was faster between 1981 and 1990 than it was between 1990 and 2005 does not go with our avowed goal of financial inclusion.

It is a matter to be debated whether the economic reforms really reduced or, in fact, increased the gap between the rich and the poor.

There is no denying the fact that the class of super-rich is one of the contributions of our economic reforms.

What is needed is that more and more people from the lower rungs should become the beneficiaries of reforms fuelled by globalisation and liberalisation.

N. Vijayagopalan Bangalore

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