Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) study finds that 270 million Indians were lifted out of poverty by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and those who scoff at its record must know that economists laugh at their ineptitude, former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday.
The senior Congress leader was reacting to a report on poverty data released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and OPHI that pointed out that 65 out of 75 countries studied significantly reduced their multidimensional poverty levels between 2000 and 2019.
About 273 million Indians moved out of multi-dimensional poverty between 2005-6 and 2015-16, the report claimed.
In a series of tweets, Mr. Chidambaram, who was the UPA’s Finance Minister for a large part of its 10-year rule between 2004 and 2014, described the UPA years as ‘golden years of growth’.
“Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Study finds that 270 millions Indians were lifted out of poverty during 2005-2015. This was the period of UPA 1 and UPA 2, the golden period of India’s economic growth,” he said.
“What has the NDA government done since 2015? Only caused a decline in economic growth for 9 successive quarters and an impending recession in 2020-21. Those who scoff at the UPA’s record must know that economists are laughing at their ignorance and ineptitude,” he stated without mentioning anyone by name.
