The speaker for this Development Seminar @ Brookings India was Dr. Rinku Murgai (Lead Economist, World Bank) who presented her work titled “Pathways to Reducing Poverty and Sharing Prosperity in India: Lessons from the Last Two Decades”

India is uniquely placed to help reduce global poverty and boost prosperity. The country has the largest number of poor people in the world, as well as the largest number of people who have recently escaped poverty. There is an emerging middle class but the majority of people are still vulnerable to falling back into poverty. What lessons do the past two decades offer for what it will take for the country to sustain progress and bring about deeper changes?

This talk brought together key insights from extensive and in-depth research conducted by the World Bank on India’s experience in reducing poverty and sharing prosperity. The Synthesis paper on which this talk was based offers an overview of the trends in living standards and mobility in India. This was followed by a discussion of the main drivers of poverty reduction. The final section shed light on some of the gaps India needs to fill for sustaining mobility and spreading prosperity more widely.

Link to paper: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/24988

Development Seminar Series Photographs

About Development Seminars Series @ Brookings India

The Development Seminars Series @ Brookings India is a platform for global scholars to present their work to a curated audience of senior government officials, politicians, journalists, academics and policy enthusiasts. The format of the seminars includes a senior researcher as a lead presenter and a government/industry expert to discuss the results and relevance within the Indian context. The fundamental focus of the seminar series is to draw research-based insights to shape and influence policy dialogues in India, through purposeful and pointed discussions.

Other Development Seminars

• The Real Effects of Unconventional Monetary Policy
• Immigration and its Discontents
• America’s Economic Anxiety
• Using Technology to Strengthen Democracy
• The Online Education Revolution and India
• Environmental Challenges in India
• Corporate social responsibility in India: Law, implementation and evidence
• Launch of paper ‘Building Smart Cities in India’
• Dr D. Subbarao on leading the RBI through 5 turbulent years
• Disguised Corruption: Evidence from Consumer Credit in China
• Transporting India to the 2030s by Dr. Rakesh Mohan