Completely eradicated poverty in China, says Xi

President Xi Jinping on Thursday declared that China has scored a "complete victory" in its fight against poverty by lifting over 770 million people out of it in the last four decades, calling it another "miracle" created by the country that will go down in history. Absolute poverty has been eradicated in the world's most populous country, Xi announced while addressing a gathering held here to mark the country's accomplishments in poverty alleviation and honour its model poverty fighters.

China has a population of around 1.4 billion. "No country has been able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time," Xi said. Xi said that all poor people in rural areas have been lifted out of poverty. With this, China has achieved the UN goal of poverty eradication 10 years ahead of the 2030 deadline, he said. Over the past eight years, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the current poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. All the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list, he said. Since the launch of the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, 770 million impoverished rural residents have shaken off poverty when calculated according to China's current poverty line, he said. China has contributed to more than 70 per cent of global poverty reduction over the same period, Xi, also General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, said.

Ahmedabad, Feb. 25: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said this year's budget has negated the notion that welfare state is a socialist prerogative, and added that it has given a directional change to the Indian economy, wherein the government trusts wealth creators and citizens. She lauded the reform of faceless assessment for direct and indirect taxes, saying that tax terrorism will be a thing of the past, but also warned that "technology terrorism" will now gain ground.

"This is a budget for new decade. This budget clearly says, private sector we trust you and you are welcome to participate in the development of the country. It's a budget in which we are recognising what a government can do or how far it can do...So it's a budget that gives directional change to the Indian economy," Sitharaman said while addressing an event.

"We inherited a system from the USSR, where glories of socialism were spoken about...That only socialism can take care of the welfare of the entire population. They say welfare state is a socialist prerogative," she said.

"So we went for socialism, which could not fit into the Indian ethos.”

She said, "technology can identify where loopholes exist, where people are misusing the system...

"So technology terrorism will happen next."

She said corporate taxes are the lowest in India and companies want to set up their base in India.