UNGA lauds India’s digital revolution for lifting 80 crore out of poverty

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Dennis Francis praised India's digital revolution and focus on expanding banking services to rural parts of the country. He  highlighted the contribution of mobile phones and digital banking services in India in lifting 800 million people out of poverty.Addressing the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations on ‘Accelerating progress towards Zero Hunger for the current and future generations’, Francis gave India’s example while explaining the change that technology and innovation can bring in the lives of people from developing countries.“India has been able to lift 800 million people out of poverty over the last five or six years simply by the use of a smartphone. Rural farmers in India, who never had a relationship with a banking system, are now able to transact all their businesses on their smartphone,” Francis, a seasoned diplomat from Trinidad and Tobago, told the gathering.
He underlined the high internet penetration in India, citing it as a major factor for the country to be able to benefit from the smartphone boom coupled with easy access to banking services. He also said that other Global South countries did not face such scenarios, unlike India, and called for steps to embrace digitalisation."But 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 and initiatives to address this inequality as an initial step in negotiating the global framework for digitalisation," he said.

Watch: "Rural farmers in India who never had a relationship with the banking system are now able to conduct all their transactions on their smartphones... 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty... That is not the case in many parts of the Global South," says Dennis… pic.twitter.com/yVqw1FRYSK

— IANS (@ians_india) August 1, 2024

Digitalisation has been one of the main focuses of the Narendra Modi-led government for the last 10 years. Following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes in 2016, a spike in digital payment transactions has been witnessed since then, with UPI being a major contributor.