Best instrument to combat poverty is growth: Arvind Pangariya

Arvind Pangariya, vice chairman of NITI Aayog, said the best instrument to combat poverty is growth but growth brings inequality with it. NITI Aayog is government's premier think tank set up in place of the Planning Commission.

"Some inequality can be tolerated if one is able to combat poverty," he said while speaking at the Advancing Asia conference, jointly organised by government and the International Monetary Fund.

According to Panagariya, the government is bringing about legislative changes to bring equality in workforce.

"While some legislative changes that allow women to work in night shifts is happening in some states, most important thing to bridge the gap is education," Panagariya pointed out.

A new IMF staff paper finds that income inequality has since increased in 15 of 22 Asian countries. Asia remains home to two-thirds of the world’s poor, many of whom live in India. In most of the region, women and youth are still greatly underrepresented in the labor market.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde agreed that women are the untapped resource and the treasure of Asia but face legal barriers to labor market.

According to Panagariya, while India has managed to set up large number of higher educational institutes in the country but their quality is an issue.