Undivided Koraput district in Odisha has highest level in poverty index: Experts

Koraput, Dec 23: In poverty index of Odisha, undivided Koraput district is in the highest level as mentioned in the Niti Ayog report published recently, though efforts for development of the Koraput started 25 years before is a matter of concern, said, Prof. Sunil Kant Behera, eminent Professor of the Country and currently visiting Professor of the Central University of Odisha. Behera while addressing a Lecture programme on ‘SDG: An Overview and Challenges for Minimizing Income Inequality’ elaborated the five Ps of the sustainable development goals i.e. people, planet earth, prosperity, peace and partnership to achieve the target. He said “no doubt the country is growing in many aspects but in the present globalized period the reality in the whole world is inequality. Rich become richer, the poor become poorer and the middle classes are sufferer”. As part of the Guest Lecture Series the Central university of Odisha, Koraput organized the second Guest lecture on ‘SDG: An Overview and Challenges for Minimizing Income Inequality’. The Vice-Chancellor of the University Prof. Sharat Kumar Palita inaugurated and presided over the programme. He highlighted various targets set on Sustainable Development Goals and what our country achieved so far. Eminent economist and policy-planner Prof. S.N. Mishra, Dean, School of Management KIIT, Bhubaneswar delivered a lecture as the Chief Speaker on this occasion. He spoke about the   historical perspective of SDG starting from Brundtland Report 1987, compared different goals of MDG-2010 and SDG-2016, SDG sub-targets including eradication of extreme poverty, improvement of social protection system ensuring equal rights to basic service and technology- good nutrition, agricultural productivity and investment on agriculture, science and technology. He said “in a liberalized world markets become free and give us free access but there is inequality in human development parameters like society, economy, justice and inequality. Although growth is there, the level of poverty has increased around the globe. To reduce inequality, he suggested that there needs to be improvement of education and up-skilling of the workforce, increase in minimum wages, higher tax on the super rich, improvement of universal health care, increase in tax on corporate and introduction of wealth tax.