United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Dennis Francis praised India for its digital revolution and focus on expanding banking services to rural parts of the country, saying 800 million (80 crore) Indians were lifted out of poverty in the past five to six years “simply by the use of smartphones”.
He highlighted how people in rural India who earlier did not have access to banking or payment systems were now able to pay bills and receive payments for orders just by using a smartphone.
“Digitalisation provides the basis for rapid development (of a country). Take, for example, the case of India. India has been able to lift 800 million people out of poverty over the past five to six years simply by the use of smartphones,” Francis said at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on the topic of ‘Accelerating progress towards Zero Hunger for the current and future generations’.
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.
“Rural farmers in India who never had a relationship with the banking system, are now able to transact all their businesses on their smartphone. They pay their bills and receive payments for orders. There is a high level of internet penetration in India as almost everyone has a cellphone,” he said.