Symposium on poverty alleviation held

ITANAGAR, Nov 17: The economics department of the Himalayan University (HU) here organised a symposium on ‘Experimental approach for poverty alleviation’ on Friday.
During the inaugural function, HU registrar Dr Vivek Mittal spoke about the achievement of Indian origin economist Dr Abhijit Banerjee, who has been awarded with the Nobel Prize in Economics for 2019.
RGU professor Dr Lijum Nochi explained the theory of ‘Experimental approach for poverty alleviation’.
“Dr Banerjee’s theory has introduced a unique and new approach to obtain reliable answers to fight global poverty,” he said.
Dr Nochi said the primary problem in many low-income countries is not lack of resources but the fact that teaching is not sufficiently adapted to the pupils’ needs.
He said research showed that the world has enough food grains “but hunger is still the problem; so, the problem is not food; rather the problem is the system through which food should reach the needy,” he said.
Dr Nochi said it would require a comprehensive plan, “which includes the areas of health, effective institution, effective immunization, micro-credit and macro policy,” in order to alleviate poverty.
“The most critical issue for poverty alleviation is institutions, awareness and willingness,” he said.
Dr Nochi explained that ‘institutions’ means the implementing bodies of various schemes and projects; ‘awareness’ means that the people should be aware of various schemes; and ‘willingness’ means that the people are willing to take action to alleviate poverty.
HU vice-chancellor Dr HS Sharma, administration head D Bagra, and economics HoD Tarme Riram also spoke.