NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday cited the World Bank’s October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief, saying India had recorded one of the fastest declines in poverty globally.She also credited the government’s policies under Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the progress, saying it was the reason the NDA continued to enjoy people’s trust and mandate.In a post on X, Sitharaman highlighted six key findings from the report, covering poverty reduction, employment growth, women’s participation in the workforce, improvements in household welfare and access to electricity.Sharing the findings, Sitharaman said, “The World Bank’s October 2026 Poverty & Equity Brief records India’s progress as one of the fastest poverty declines in the world.”The six key findings highlighted by the finance minister were:
- Poverty reduction: 49.6 crore people moved above the lower-middle-income poverty line of $4.20 a day between 2011 and 2023, with the poverty rate declining from 57.7% to 16.1%.
- Decline in extreme poverty: Extreme poverty declined from 27.1% to 2.6% over the same period, measured at $3 a day. Both monetary poverty thresholds use 2021 purchasing power parity.
- Employment growth: Employment increased by 13.4 crore people between 2017 and 2023, nearly twice the increase in the working-age population.
- Women’s participation: Rural women accounted for a significant share of the employment gains, entering paid work and increasing the number of earners in their households.
- Improved household welfare: Both rural and urban households experienced substantial welfare gains, with faster progress in rural India narrowing the rural–urban gap.
- Electricity access: Access to electricity reached 99% of the population, according to the report’s 2022 survey data.
Sitharaman said the World Bank had identified strong consumption growth, rising employment, particularly among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies, as key drivers of India’s progress.She added that the government would continue to focus on productive employment, stronger household incomes and effective delivery of public services to build on the gains.The minister’s remarks on poverty reduction came amid a political exchange with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the proposed sale of the government’s stake in IDBI Bank to Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings.Rahul has opposed the disinvestment, arguing that public sector banks serve a larger purpose beyond commercial returns. In a letter to IDBI Bank employees on Thursday, he said the bank had turned around its financial performance and questioned the decision to sell it to a private investor.“Seven years ago, IDBI was losing money. Last year, it earned a profit of over nine thousand crore rupees. That turnaround is your work,” Rahul said in the letter.He added, “The Congress has always believed in a strong public sector working alongside the private sector. Public banks are not assets to be sold off, they are tools to build the nation.”Rahul also raised concerns about the impact of the sale on employees’ service conditions and reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.Responding to his remarks, Sitharaman accused the Congress-led government of using banks and financial institutions as “personal entities” and pressuring them to extend loans without following prudent lending practices.“IDBI Bank was handed over to us in poor shape, as IDBI itself was forced to lend to large business groups with close connections to @INCIndia leaders such as Videocon, Winsome, ABG Shipyard, and Kingfisher,” Sitharaman earlier posted on social media.“The NDA govt led by Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi revived the IDBI Bank through professionalism, prudence and recapitalisation of more than Rs 25,000 crores. The IDBI Bank is now poised for its next phase of growth,” she added.The government on October 14 approved the sale of a 60.72% stake in IDBI Bank to Fairfax Financial Holdings for about Rs 53,000 crore ($5.5 billion).The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the current financial year, subject to regulatory clearances from the Reserve Bank of India.The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said on Thursday that the second round of bidding had been conducted under a procedure determined by the Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment, which was empowered by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to address procedural issues and deviations.The clarification followed questions from various quarters, including the bank union, over the valuation of IDBI Bank and the bid price offered by Fairfax.