The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised India's deployment of the direct cash transfer scheme, calling it a "logistical marvel" due to the size of the country.
IMF deputy director of the Fiscal Affairs Department Paolo Mauro said on Wednesday that there is a lot to learn from India. "From India, there is a lot to learn. There is a lot to learn from some other examples around the world. We have examples from pretty much every continent and every level of income. If I look at the case of India, it is actually quite impressive," Mauro told reporters.
He was speaking on the sidelines of annual meetings of the Board of Governors of the IMF and the World Bank Group.
"In fact, just because of the sheer size of the country, it is a logical marvel how these programmes that seek to help people who are at low-income levels reach literally hundreds of millions of people," he commented on the direct cash transfer programme being successfully implemented by the Indian government.
Mauro also mentioned about programmes that target specifically women. "There are programmes that target the elderly and farmers. Perhaps the interesting part is that in these examples, there is a lot of technological innovation," he said.
"In the case of India, one thing that is striking is the use of the unique identification system, the Aadhaar," Mauro said.
Vitor Gaspar, director of the Fiscal Affairs Department, too observed that the global lender is collaborating with India on the application of new technologies. He said India "one of the most inspiring examples of the application of technology to solve very complicated issues of targeting support to the people who need it most".
The praise for India comes as the IMF said India was doing better and is in a relatively bright spot compared to other countries despite being impacted. “Almost every country is slowing. In that context, India is doing better and is in a relative bright spot compared to the other countries in the region," IMF Director of Asia and Pacific Department, Krishna Srinivasan told PTI.
However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had cut its projection of India's economic growth in 2022 to 6.8 per cent, as it joins other global agencies that have trimmed forecasts. It had in July projected a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.4 per cent for India in the fiscal year that started in April 2022. Even that forecast was lower than 8.2 per cent projected in January this year.