"80 cr people came out of poverty due to efforts made by PM Modi," says Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

New Delhi [India], August 2 : Reacting to UNGA president Dennis Francis's statement praising India for moving 80 crore people out of poverty, BJP leader and former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Francis has presented an example of transformation in India during the last ten years.
The Union Minister mentioned the statistics and said that PM Modi through his digital government policies has helped 80 crore people to come out of poverty and 25 crore people from multi-dimensional poverty.
"He gave the example of transformation in India in these 10 years and PM Modi and said that every country should form policies like these to take their poor forward. He also said that this change in the lives of 80 crore people is due to technology and mobile phones. 80 crore people came out of poverty and 25 crore out of multi-dimensional due to the efforts made by PM Modi. Before 2014, the narrative of the Government of India before the world was that the government was very dysfunctional, the government system was very leaky and corrupt, that banking inclusion in India was just for the rich and middle class, and the poor were disconnected from the banking system," said Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
"Internet connectivity was available to only 17 crore people before 2014, so there was a digital exclusion framework. After 2014, PM Modi turned this 17 crore internet connection into 90 crore in 10 years. 14 crore people had bank accounts, today 52 crore people have bank accounts. So, combining all of these we have seen that 25 crore people have come out of multidimensional poverty and during COVID 80 crore people were provided ration and 200 crore vaccination was administered with the help of technology..." he added further.
"Former UK PM Tony Blair said that other countries must also follow India's footsteps," he highlighted.
Lashing out at the opponents, the Union Minister said, "So many of our opposition parties ask what has happened in ten years. But the world knows and we also know what PM Modi has done a lot for the poors and farmers. They have been empowered using technology. The world acknowledges that."
Earlier in the day, 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, can make payments and pay bills just on the touch of a smartphone.
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.