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Monday, February 28, 2005
Finance and poverty
How do you help the poor? By modernising finance. Vijay Kelkar writes in the Indian Express:
Read the full thing.
The direct links between finance and poverty cannot be over-emphasised. The poor have highly volatile income, and would be great beneficiaries of finance in order to smooth consumption across time and control risk. When two identical people in the country borrow at starkly different rates, it is an inefficient use of resources. Solving these gaps is good for the poor and good for growth. Modern IT systems have led to a dramatic drop in the cost of processing transactions, and have made it possible to carry finance to the poor. Fostering more modern finance is pro-poor.
Read the full thing.
