India has the fastest rates of poverty reduction in the world with around 44 Indians coming out of poverty every minute, says a recent study published in a Brookings blog. As reported by The Times of India, the study which defines extreme poverty as living on less than $1.9 a day, says that by 2022, less than 3 per cent of Indians will be below the poverty line.

According to the study, if this trend continues, India could drop to the third position this year and extreme poverty being completely eliminated by 2030.

Nigeria is the country with the most number of poor people.

The study, published in the ‘Future Development’ blog of Brookings, as quoted by the daily, says that Nigeria had 87 million people living in extreme poverty as against India’s 73 million, with poverty growing by six people every minute in the former while it continues to fall in India.

“Going ahead, the challenge is to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, which will help realise the study’s findings that India would be able to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030,” said professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy N R Bhanumurthy, as quoted, opining that rapid economic growth had resulted in these diminishing numbers.