Development Economics: Researchby | 31-12-2013 00:24 |
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 Dear Tunza Friends Poverty is one of the biggest problems the world is facing today. Since the last month I'm working in the rural areas of India over development economics, conducting experiments and doing research to evaluate the methods to eliminate poverty. I'd like to share some of my experiences - So whom exactly do we call "poor"? Are beggars poor? Are farmers poor? What is "poverty line"? The average poverty line in the fifty countries where most of the poor live is 16 Indian rupees per person per day. People who live on less that that are considered to be poor by the government of their own countries. This is the same as 99 cents per person per day in USA. Now you can imagine how the life's of poor would be like. Surviving on 16 Indian rupees per day! It means lack of food, lack of information (newspaper, television, books), lack of education which is harmful both to the individual and the nation as a whole. One can't have enough knowledge about the banking system, voting system, human and citizen rights, environmental laws, etc, when one is expected to survive just on 16 rupees per day. A girl who could be a great stock broker someday, does not get proper education and a boy who could be a great athlete does not receive the proper resources to utilize his talent. POVERTY TRAP The concept of poverty trap is very arguable. Some people believe that with proper methods, its possible for a man to come out of poverty while some economist believe that there's no such thing as poverty trap. Jeffery Sachs, adviser to the UN, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, believes in poverty trap and suggests that foreign aid can kick-start a virtuous cycle by eliminating poor nations. On the contrary, William Easterly, author of The Elusive Quest for Growth, and Dambisa Moyo, an economist to have worked at World Bank and Goldman Sachs, both argue that aid does more bad than good: It prevents people from solving their own problems and raising corruption. So, who is right? What methodology should we adopt? In the next report I'd share my experiments which would help in finding a solution to the worldwide issue. Please read and share the information. Thank-you.
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