YES, WE CAN OVERCOME THE POVERTY IN INDIA IN A SHORT SPAN OF TIME

Wealth of country is nothing but the natural resources available and the people available to exploit those. India is fortunately rich in these two, but unfortunately many Indians still remain poor.

The current population of India is estimated to be 1.39 billion. The Pew Research Center, using World Bank data, has estimated that the number of poor in India (with income of $2 per day or less in purchasing power parity) has more than doubled to 134 million from 60 million in just a year due to the pandemic induced recession. In the recent years, India emerged as a country with the highest rate of poverty reduction. In 2019, the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index reported that India lifted 271 million citizens out of poverty between 2006 and 2016. Contrast to this with the situation in 2020: the highest global poverty increase happened in India. A report by the Indian Express says - our estimates show that around 150-199 million additional people will fall into poverty this year. It means an overall increse in poverty by 15-20 per cent, making around half of the country's population poor. It is really a precarious situation. (Under this circumstances one cannot ignore the Chinese involvement, if any, in artificially creating the pandemic)

In order to come out of this situation, all state governments and the central government should take joint measures ignoring all polititcal vengeance. All available resources should be used most effectively. Each one of us may provide our own contribution to overcome the pandemic impact. I would like to suggest the following urgent measures.

India has the second largest arable land in the world. Data from World Bank shows that 60.43% agricultural land we have. Instead of relying on outdated database we may locally find out unused and under used land. Form a society comprising of the land owners, the workers of that region and an authorised member from the local agricultural bank. Select the crop with the help of a recognised agricultural expert. If finance is required, the sme should be provided by the agricultural bank as loan. All concerned together may jointly put efforts to bring up the best yield. Once the crop is sold bank may take back their loan amount with interest fully. The remaining amount may be shared by the land owner and the workers proportionately. This is one of the easiest method to enhance the agricultural output and also the GDP.

We may discuss about another method for industrial development, including large generation of non conventional energy. Also we shall discuss about using cent percent of unemployed people into productive line targetting International market. Safe and secure investment too can be found without giving much of burden to the government. This can be achieved in a short period of time. Once this could be established properly we shall have considerable improvement in international trade. Altogether the GDP of the country will have tremendous boost. If properly managed, I am sure, that the pci of the the people will be multiplied many folds.

K V George