India's cash transfer scheme a logical marvel, use of Aadhaar is striking: IMF

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday termed India's deployment of a direct cash transfer scheme and other similar social welfare programmes as a logical marvel. 

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During a media briefing, Paolo Mauro, Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the IMF, said there is much to learn from India. 'If I look at the case of India, it is actually quite impressive... 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 hundreds of millions of people literally,' he said.

The response came when Paolo was asked about the Narendra Modi government's impressive direct cash transfer programme. 'There are programmes that target the elderly and farmers; programmes that target specifically women. Perhaps, the interesting part in these examples is that there is a lot of technological innovation,' he said.

In India's case, what's striking is the use of the unique identification system -- the Aadhaar, he added.

Endorsing Paolo's views, Fiscal Affairs Department Director Vitor Gaspar termed India as one of the most inspiring examples of the application of technology to solve very complicated issues of targeting support to people who need it the most. He further said that IMF is collaborating with India on the application of new technologies.

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