Impacts of ICT and digital finance on poverty and income inequality: a sub-national study from India

ABSTRACT The present paper explores both the direct and indirect impact of ICT diffusion through the channel of digital finance on two development indicators such as poverty and income inequality at the sub-national level in India. Ordered probit estimation confirms that ICT diffusion directly reduces the persistence of poverty in both urban and rural areas. The application of ICT in the banking sector in the form of digital finance has a positive role in rural-urban poverty reduction. ICT has no direct impact on income inequality, though financial inclusion has a positive influence on both rural and urban inequality. ICT diffusion in the banking sector dampens the positive impact of financial inclusion on urban inequality with no impact on rural inequality. Proposed policy prescription can be strengthening of ICT infrastructure with wider and uniform spread of digital finance among rural and urban population so that more people can take advantage of it.