UNGA President cites India’s efforts to lift millions out of poverty through digitalisation

Stressing the use of digitisation for rapid development, the President of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, lavished praise on India for its work in this direction, which has lifted 800 million out of poverty in the last 5-6 years.

He highlighted how people in rural areas of India, are able to make payments and pay bills just on the touch of a smartphone.

"Providing the basis to rapid development, such as through digitalisation. Take, for example, the case of India...India has been able to lift 800 million people out of poverty over the last 5-6 years simply by the use of smartphones," Francis said during his lecture at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN on the topic of 'Accelerating progress towards Zero Hunger for the current and future generations.'