India is the latest and largest nation to consider giving cash handouts to its citizens in an effort to alleviate endemic poverty.
The notion, often called “universal basic income,” has been gaining traction recently even in places that don’t have the same problems with poverty that India does, as the world’s second-most populous country.
India’s national poverty level was 70 percent when the country gained its independence in 1947, according to the report, and 22 percent in 2011- 2012, the most recent year for which data are available. Despite “making remarkable progress,” a poverty rate of 22 percent in a nation with more than 1.3 billion people means more than a couple hundred million people are suffering.
The “radical” approach of a basic income is also the “fastest” way to get results, a new report suggests.
Read more at: India considers giving cash handouts to citizens to eliminate poverty
