India halved its poverty rate since 1990s: World Bank

Washington, Oct 16 (PTI) India has halved its poverty rate since 1990s and achieved a seven-plus growth rate over last 15 years, World Bank said on Tuesday.

India is both critical to success of global development efforts, including eliminating extreme poverty, and as an influential leer for global goods such as dressing climate change, bank said ahe of annual meeting between it and International Monetary Fund.

country has achieved annual growth exceeding seven per cent over last 15 years, halved its poverty rate since 1990s, and enjoyed strong improvements in most human development outcomes, World Bank said.

ting that India's growth is expected to continue and elimination of extreme poverty in dece is within reach, it said at same time, country's development trajectory neless faces considerable challenges.

For this, World Bank said, India will need to achieve greater resource efficiency as it sustains growth, given its resource endowments and large population.

Land will need to be used more productively in urban areas by spatial transformation of cities achieving agglomeration ecomies and in rural areas by increased agricultural productivity, it said.

India's water manment will need to provide for shifting water allocation to higher-value uses and policies to increase value of water use within sectors. In dition, 230 million people are t properly connected to electricity grid while generation will need to be less carbon intensive, World Bank pointed out.

More generally, India's rapidly growing ecomy needs investment in infrastructure, an estimated 8.8 percent of GDP or USD 343 billion a year until 2030, it said.

Second, sustained growth will also need to accelerate inclusion, especially to create more and better jobs. While an estimated 13 million people enter working population each year, only three million new jobs are being generated on an annual basis, financial institution said.

World Bank said a particular challenge lies in India's declining female labour force participation, which at 27 percent is among lowest in world despite overcoming gaps in education.

Finally, India's public sector institutions will need to be modernised to deliver services and regulations that match aspirations of a middle income country; this will entail improving accountability and effectiveness, improving ability of state to interface with private sector, and strengning compact among tiers of government to improve service delivery, bank said.