` New Delhi: The World Bank on July 21 said more than 50 per cent of India's poor live in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

Tall claims of the Centre in ensuring 'garib ke pet me dana' (grain in the stomach of poor) notwithstanding, the World Bank in a latest review said the present policies, including in food grains, needed a major re-orientation and that the poverty reduction required investment in human development.

"More than half of India's poor now live in four states--Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa," it said in the first 'India Development Policy Review'.

Stressing on the need for increased investment in human development for reducing poverty, the multi- lateral lending institution said access to and quality of expenditure on social services such as health and education needs to be improved.

"This will require a major re-orientation of current programmes to harness both the public and private sectors to achieve social outcomes with careful monitoring along the way," the World Bank said.

The review called for an urgent reform in the agriculture sector, which was critical for rural poverty reduction, in the areas of food grain policy, subsidies, domestic trade and land access.

PTI