Poverty definition immaterial for financial services: Raghuram Rajan

MUMBAI: A formal definition of the poverty line may not be necessary to determine financial services for the poor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI)governor Raghuram Rajan said on Wednesday.

Speaking to journalists after meeting Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Rajan said it is more important that everybody has access to financial services. Queen Maxima is the UN Secretary General's special advocate for inclusive finance for development. “It doesn’t matter that we have a precise definition (of poverty line),” Rajan said.

“We need more financial services. We need to create an environment that everyone gets it.” C Rangarajan, former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC), recently presented a report to the Planning Commission on estimating poverty. The report is expected to clear the ambiguity over the number of poor in the country.