Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday, 15 April, said the number of people in extreme poverty will come down drastically in 2021, and will completely end by 2031 given the fast economic growth and urbanisation.
In a Facebook post, the finance minister said that the number of people living in extreme poverty will drop to below 15 percent in the coming three years and will drop to a negligible level in next 10 years.
"Urbanisation will increase, the size of the middle-class will grow and the economy will expand manifolds. These will add to the number of jobs and as the experience of past three decades have shown in the liberalised economy, every section of citizens will benefit," Jaitley wrote.
According to the World Bank, 21 percent of Indian's population in 2011 lived on a meager Rs 85 per day, Live Mint reported.
He said that India after 10-20 years will present a different look.
"The India of 2030 and the India of 2040 will present a completely different look with the socio-economic profile of the population having substantially changed. In this changed India, there will be a lesser role of caste in politics, the quality of elected representatives will improve and obviously the standards of probity will be much tighter."
Terrorism & National Security
Further in the post Jaitley said that while issue of poverty and economy are "capable of resolution, where does India stand on the issue of national security and terror?"
"Punjab, North-East and in the South, peace has been established. There is Maoist terror in the central parts of India. The region where it operates is restricted, its appeal is narrow. As the economic profile of India moves upwards, it will become extremely difficult for the Maoists to sustain their violent movement to overthrow democracy. The security ‘might’ of the State is far superior to handle this movement."
(With inputs from Live Mint)
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