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“Implement anti-poverty programmes with more efficiency”

Special Correspondent

Narayana Murthy stresses on empowering poor with good education

— Photo: R. Ragu

in discussion: N. R. Narayana Murthy (left) ,Chief Mentor, Infosys, having a word with N. Vaghul, Chairman, ICICI Bank, at the launch of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab’s operations in Chennai on Friday.

CHENNAI: The fight against poverty can be won only by implementing programmes with greater efficiency and empowering the poor with good education, healthcare and a corruption-free administration, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies, said here on Friday.

He was speaking at the South Asia launch of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) here on Friday.

“While government agencies can formulate policies, they are, in some cases, less equipped to implement them,” Mr. Murthy said. “It is here that organisations such as J-PAL can help assist governments, aid agencies and NGOs to improve the efficiency of their programmes.”

J-PAL, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-based centre that seeks to introduce scientific methods to improve the implementation of poverty programmes, has come together with the Institute for Financial Management Research (IFMR) to establish its first ever field office in Chennai.

“Our South Asia office will be based in Chennai at the IFMR, from where we will be monitoring projects across the region,” said Lindy Miller, Head of J-PAL South Asia. “We will also be trying to build partnerships with NGOs and government agencies from the region.”

J-PAL’s objective is to help implementing agencies such as government organisations and NGOs develop key interventions to improve the efficiency of their development and poverty-based programmes. The centre employs the method of randomised trials — usually used in medical trials — to provide scientific evidence for assessing the efficiency of the programmes.

By doing so, the centre hopes to introduce a culture of evidence that will end the reliance on subjective opinion that currently casts its shadow on most policy decisions, said Professor Abhijit Banerjee, Director of J-PAL. “The development process should become one where we honestly evaluate efforts and then take them forward, even considering failures, with rigorous evaluation. This is a vision we hope will change the face of the development process around the world.”

Such a change in the existing development paradigm is crucial to the fight against poverty, said Mr. Murthy. “Poor people do not want charity. They want a more participatory role in what is happening around them. It is important to assist small, micro-level enterprises in the development of skills. I believe that poverty can only be eradicated by empowering people with access to good education, healthcare and a capable administration that is corruption-free.”

Mr. Murthy felt there was “reticence” in India about recognising the problems of poverty. “The first step in solving the problem is recognising that we have it. Over the last sixteen years our economic reforms have achieved some success, but we have a long way to go. The flow of benefits has been uneven, and there is a strong rural-urban divide.”

Citing the Human Development Index, Mr. Murthy said there were 350 million people who earned less than a dollar a day in India, which was more than the population of the country in 1947. “We need to cut the humongous red-tape that exists in this country so that the not-so-fortunate people can get goods and services delivered at the right time and at acceptable levels. Our political leaders should demonstrate urgency in making this happen. India is home to one-fourth of the world’s poor, so we have to defeat poverty. Simply, if India cannot win, then the world cannot win.”

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