ABSTRACT
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Ministry of Rural Development are separate ministries at the national level. The Gram Swaraj Abhiyan offers a very good model for achieving outcomes under New India 2022. Economists and political leaders have been debating poverty reduction and coming up with their own solutions. Economists have long debated the role of infrastructure and human development for poverty reduction. Clearly, poverty is multi-dimensional, and its reduction is the net outcome of effective access to education, health, sanitation, skills, connectivity, markets, and credit linkage among others. The southern Indian States which have successfully reduced poverty, especially Kerala and Tamil Nadu, point to five factors which really make a difference to poverty. The debate regarding Universal Basic Income is disturbing in a country with huge education, health, and infrastructure deficits. The thrust on water conservation has provided protective irrigation to over one crore hectares of land.
