Economic reforms started in a slow, fragmented and limited way in the eighties and gathered momentum and clear direction in the nineties. These reforms have by and large focussed on removing the economic distortions created by earlier policies such as physical controls on economic activity and excessively high tax rates. As a result of these reforms India will likely have an annual average growth rate of about 6% over the last two decades of the 20th century. Despite this India remains one of the poorest countries in the World. As per the last comprehensive survey in 1993-94, about 36% of the people are still below the poverty line. As per the international poverty line, about half the people are still poor.