Has poverty really dropped to 5% in India?
9 months, 1 week ago

Has poverty really dropped to 5% in India?

The Hindu  

Subrahmanyam recently claimed that less than 5% of Indians now live below the poverty line. Mr. Subrahmanyam argued that the average consumption expenditure in the bottom 5% of India’s population, as estimated by the survey, is about the same as the poverty line in India, suggesting that the poverty rate in India is somewhere in the range of 0 to 5%. Surjit Bhalla and Jayati Ghosh discuss the question in a conversation moderated by Prashanth Perumal J. Edited excerpts: The claim is that less than 5% of Indians live below the poverty line. What Surjit is using is the Tendulkar line adjusted for consumer price inflation and the World Bank’s purchasing power poverty line of $2.15 a day, both of which would give you less than 5% extreme poverty or extreme destitution. In Focus podcast |Multidimensional poverty in India: decoding the Niti Aayog report GDP growth is now driven by capital expenditure, largely public capital expenditure, because we really haven’t seen the same revival in private investment, largely because mass consumption demand is stagnant.

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History of this topic

Basic survival no longer an issue in India, says Niti Aayog
5 months, 1 week ago

Basic survival no longer an issue in India, says Niti Aayog

Hindustan Times  

New Delhi: India has made significant progress in eliminating poverty, especially in the past nine years, and according to Niti Aayog’s SDG Index 2023-24, the country is expected to achieve the SDG target 1.2 of halving multidimensional poverty much ahead of 2030. In 2022-23, it further dropped to 11.28%, with 24.8 crore people moving out of multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 …

PM’s Economic Advisory Council chief Bibek Debroy pitches for a review of India’s official poverty line
6 months ago

PM’s Economic Advisory Council chief Bibek Debroy pitches for a review of India’s official poverty line

The Hindu  

Making a pitch to revisit the country’s poverty line, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council chairman Bibek Debroy on Wednesday questioned whether a decline in inequality as suggested by the latest household consumption expenditure survey was a “good thing”, and termed the debate over the gap between the survey’s findings and spends measured in the national income accounts as “sterile”. “We …

PM Modi's data on poverty eradication has no international recognition: Shashi Tharoor
6 months, 3 weeks ago

PM Modi's data on poverty eradication has no international recognition: Shashi Tharoor

Hindustan Times  

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday took a jibe at PM Narendra Modi claiming that no data given by the Prime Minister has received international recognition. Amid the ongoing Lok Sabha Election 2024, PM Modi in his campaign rallies, has been claiming that his government lifted 25 crore Indians out of poverty. What NITI Aayog report on poverty alleviation …

Declining poverty ratio: a continuing trend
7 months, 1 week ago

Declining poverty ratio: a continuing trend

The Hindu  

The release of the fact sheet of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2022-23 by the National Sample Survey Office led to estimations of poverty and inequality trends by many researchers. The estimated poverty ratios declined from 29.5% in 2011-12 to 10% in 2022-23 based on the Rangarajan Committee’s poverty lines and from 21.9% in 2011-12 to 3% in 2022-23 …

Poverty and inequality debate resurfaces in election season
7 months, 3 weeks ago

Poverty and inequality debate resurfaces in election season

Hindustan Times  

As Indians heads to the poll this season, a new chapter is being written in a very old debate about poverty and inequality in India. This debate has been stirred up by the release of new data from a government- The economist Maitreesh Ghatak spoke about the resurgent debate over poverty and inequality on last week’s episode of Grand Tamasha, …

Data on what Indians earn does have plenty to reveal of poverty in India
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Data on what Indians earn does have plenty to reveal of poverty in India

Live Mint  

Even though the fact-sheet on the Consumption Expenditure Survey has been officially released, the debate on poverty is far from over. For all of India, it would imply a poverty line of ₹445 per day, slightly higher than the government notified minimum wages. This was only ₹310 per day in case of agricultural workers, lower than the estimate reported by …

What the new expenditure survey says about poverty
8 months, 3 weeks ago

What the new expenditure survey says about poverty

New Indian Express  

The publication of a fact sheet by the National Sample Survey Office, containing the results of the NSS Household Consumer Expenditure Survey data for 2022-23, a decade after the publication of the last survey data in 2011-12, has again sparked a debate regarding poverty in India. Using the 2022-23 data on average monthly per capita consumer expenditure for rural and …

Breaking the poverty cycle: Charting India’s path to prosperity
9 months, 1 week ago

Breaking the poverty cycle: Charting India’s path to prosperity

Firstpost  

There is a World Poverty Clock. Funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, the World Poverty Clock shows the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide, disaggregated by age, gender and rural/urban location. ‘Target Escape Rate’ is the average poverty reduction needed to achieve SDG1 by the …

Has poverty really dropped to 5% in India?
9 months, 1 week ago

Has poverty really dropped to 5% in India?

The Hindu  

Subrahmanyam recently claimed that less than 5% of Indians now live below the poverty line. Mr. Subrahmanyam argued that the average consumption expenditure in the bottom 5% of India’s population, as estimated by the survey, is about the same as the poverty line in India, suggesting that the poverty rate in India is somewhere in the range of 0 to …

Poverty levels below 5%, claims NITI Aayog chief
9 months, 4 weeks ago

Poverty levels below 5%, claims NITI Aayog chief

The Hindu  

Less than 5% of Indians are now expected to be below the poverty line, and extreme destitution has almost gone away, a top government official asserted on February 25, citing the findings of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2022-23. Subrahmanyam, the chief executive officer of the Centre’s think tank Niti Aayog, averred that growth is “broad-based” with rural Indians’ …

Multidimensional poverty in India: decoding the Niti Aayog report | In Focus podcast
11 months ago

Multidimensional poverty in India: decoding the Niti Aayog report | In Focus podcast

The Hindu  

A new paper released by the NITI Aayog has claimed that multidimensional poverty has declined from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23, and that 24.82 crore people “escaped” from multidimensional poverty during this 9-year period. Titled ‘Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06: A Discussion Paper’, the NITI Aayog report claims that India is well on track to achieve the …

Multidimensional poverty: Can we eliminate it within a decade?
11 months ago

Multidimensional poverty: Can we eliminate it within a decade?

Live Mint  

Going by Niti Aayog’s latest assessment, India has made substantial gains in its fight against deprivation. The Niti Aayog’s index has a formula that echoes what the United Nations Development Programme uses for multidimensional poverty, with parameters that differ slightly. Since the central think-tank’s 12 counts include several that targeted programmes can move the needle on—like nutrition, child mortality, sanitation, …

What poverty numbers reveal
11 months, 1 week ago

What poverty numbers reveal

Hindustan Times  

India has pulled 248 million out of multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23, according to a discussion paper released by the NITI Aayog on Monday. PREMIUM Elections aside, what is the real import of the multidimensional poverty numbers? Because multidimensional poverty numbers are not based on measuring consumption expenditure and, therefore, on whether or not a person is above the …

Over 24.8 crore people moved out of poverty in India in nine years: NITI report
11 months, 1 week ago

Over 24.8 crore people moved out of poverty in India in nine years: NITI report

The Hindu  

As many as 24.82 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty in nine years to 2022-23, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh registering the largest decline, Niti Aayog said in a report on January 15. According to the NITI discussion paper, multidimensional poverty in India declined from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23, with about 24.82 crore people …

Multidimensional Poverty Index reduction under the NDA is flawed
1 year ago

Multidimensional Poverty Index reduction under the NDA is flawed

The Hindu  

Samuel Johnson, a profound literary critic and essayist, wrote, “Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.” In sharp contrast, conventional measures of poverty in terms of income are limited and narrowly focused on scarcity of resources to eke out a bare subsistence. The MPI story …

Bihar caste survey decoded: Data reveals alarming poverty, job challenges
1 year, 1 month ago

Bihar caste survey decoded: Data reveals alarming poverty, job challenges

Live Mint  

The caste survey report in Bihar, which was tabled in the Assembly by Parliamentary Affairs Department Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary on Tuesday, has revealed alarming data on the jobs and poverty challenges in the state. According to the Bihar caste survey, 34.1 per cent of Bihar’s households are poor and only 1.57 per cent which is 2,049,370 of the state’s …

India among top countries with high income, wealth inequality: UNDP report
1 year, 1 month ago

India among top countries with high income, wealth inequality: UNDP report

Live Mint  

India has emerged among top countries with high income and wealth inequality but the share of the population living in multidimensional poverty fell from 25 to 15 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-21, the UNDP said in a new report. Despite these successes, poverty remains persistently concentrated in states that are home to 45 per cent of the country's population …

PM Modi says 13.5 crore Indians rose above poverty line in last 5 years
1 year, 4 months ago

PM Modi says 13.5 crore Indians rose above poverty line in last 5 years

Live Mint  

New Delhi: A staggering 13.50 crore Indians have risen above the poverty line in the past five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday quoting a recent NITI Aayog report. Speaking at the Madhya Pradesh Rozgar Mela, the prime minister said, “When decisions are made with positive thinking, right intention, and full integrity, the whole environment gets filled with …

Consumption-based poverty estimates have relevance
1 year, 4 months ago

Consumption-based poverty estimates have relevance

The Hindu  

A recent report by NITI Aayog on multidimensional poverty shows that the percentage of the poor has gone down from 25% in 2015-16 to 15% in 2019-21 and around 135 million people were lifted out of poverty during this period. The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report of 2023 of the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty & Human …

The week in 5 charts | Manipur unrest, INDIA alliance, Alcaraz wins Wimbledon, and more
1 year, 5 months ago

The week in 5 charts | Manipur unrest, INDIA alliance, Alcaraz wins Wimbledon, and more

The Hindu  

Unrest in Manipur continues More than two months after three women were stripped and paraded by a mob in violence-hit Manipur, police arrested four accused in a case of gang rape and abduction, one of whom was seen in a viral video clip of the incident which surfaced online on Wednesday. 26 Opposition parties form INDIA alliance The leaders of …

India’s triumphs over poverty marred by an alarming hunger crisis as over 70 per cent of Indians fails to afford healthy food
1 year, 5 months ago

India’s triumphs over poverty marred by an alarming hunger crisis as over 70 per cent of Indians fails to afford healthy food

The Hindu  

Published : Jul 21, 2023 12:38 IST - 3 MINS READ Government think-tank NITI Aayog’s recent report, released on July 17, revealed a remarkable achievement in India’s fight against multidimensional poverty. However, despite these positive strides in economic development, a consortium of esteemed organisations including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, …

Niti Aayog report claims decrease in multidimensional poverty
1 year, 5 months ago

Niti Aayog report claims decrease in multidimensional poverty

The Hindu  

India has registered a significant decline of 9.89 percentage points in the number of multidimensionally poor, from 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-2021, according to the ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’. It claims that about 13.5 crore people came out of multidimensional poverty during the period, assessed by identifying “acute deprivations in health, education and standard …

13.5 crore Indians move out of multidimensional poverty in five years: Niti Aayog report
1 year, 5 months ago

13.5 crore Indians move out of multidimensional poverty in five years: Niti Aayog report

The Hindu  

India witnessed 13.5 crore people moving out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21 with fastest reduction in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan, a Niti Aayog report said on Monday. The report — 'National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A progress of Review 2023' — was released by Suman Bery, Vice-Chairman, Niti Aayog. Providing multidimensional poverty estimates for the …

415 mn Indians no longer poor, says UN
1 year, 5 months ago

415 mn Indians no longer poor, says UN

Live Mint  

As many as 415 million Indians moved out of poverty in the 15-year period between 2005/2006 and 2019/2021, the UN said in a report on Tuesday. “Countries halved their MPI in periods as short as four to 12 years, demonstrating the feasibility of the Sustainable Development Goal target of halving poverty according to national definitions within 15 years,” it added. …

India registers remarkable reduction in poverty: UN
1 year, 5 months ago

India registers remarkable reduction in poverty: UN

Deccan Chronicle  

United Nations: A total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, the UN said on Tuesday, highlighting the remarkable achievement by the world's most populous nation. "Notably, India saw a remarkable reduction in poverty, with 415 million people exiting poverty within a span of just 15 years," the report …

415 million Indians came out of multidimensional poverty in 15 years, says UNDP study
1 year, 5 months ago

415 million Indians came out of multidimensional poverty in 15 years, says UNDP study

The Hindu  

A total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, the United Nations said on July 11, highlighting the remarkable achievement by the world's most populous nation. "Notably, India saw a remarkable reduction in poverty, with 415 million people exiting poverty within a span of just 15 years," the report …

UN praises 'remarkable' India as 415 million exit poverty levels in 15 years
1 year, 5 months ago

UN praises 'remarkable' India as 415 million exit poverty levels in 15 years

Hindustan Times  

A total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, the UN said on Tuesday, highlighting the remarkable achievement by the world's most populous nation. In India, 415 million poor people moved out of poverty from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, with incidence falling from 55.1 per cent in 2005/2006 to 16.4 …

The simmering debate over poverty rate
1 year, 7 months ago

The simmering debate over poverty rate

Live Mint  

London/Boston: As the 2024 elections approach, taking stock of the economy after a decade-long rule of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi becomes a natural talking point. View Full Image Graphic: Mint According to the World Bank’s earlier $1.90 PPP per day line that defines extreme poverty, 23% of India’s population was poor in 2011-12, the last estimate …

When asked for data on poverty reduction, Government of India gives 10 year old data
1 year, 8 months ago

When asked for data on poverty reduction, Government of India gives 10 year old data

The Hindu  

The Union government seemed to have acknowledged that it had no data to assess whether the poverty levels in the country had reduced in recent years, a reply provided in the Rajya Sabha on Monday for a question raised by two DMK Rajya Sabha MPs showed. Rajeshkumar had asked whether large number of people were living below poverty line in …

Claims of spike in poverty in India during COVID-19 patently false, says paper co-authored by Arvind Panagariya
1 year, 9 months ago

Claims of spike in poverty in India during COVID-19 patently false, says paper co-authored by Arvind Panagariya

The Hindu  

Claims of a spike in poverty and inequality in India during the COVID-19 pandemic are patently false as such claims are based on uncomparable different surveys, according to a paper co-authored by eminent economist Arvind Panagariya. Mr. Panagariya, Columbia University Professor and former Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog and Vishal More of Intelink Advisors, New Delhi have co-authored a detailed paper …

We’ve made significant progress on poverty reduction
2 years, 1 month ago

We’ve made significant progress on poverty reduction

Live Mint  

Some great news and some not so good news. Titled Unpacking Deprivation Bundles to Reduce Multidimensional Poverty, the report is based on robust household survey data from 111 underlying developing countries and covers 6.1 billion people. As India’s population has quadrupled in the 75 years since Independence, India’s progress on poverty reduction has been steady, particularly in the last 30 …

How Many Indians are Poor If Even Govt Admits that 800 Million Need Dry Rations?
2 years, 3 months ago

How Many Indians are Poor If Even Govt Admits that 800 Million Need Dry Rations?

The Quint  

2022 marks an important decadal anniversary. It is exactly a decade to when the Rangarajan Committee was set up to come up with fresh parameters for India’s poverty line. For a democracy like India, with alleviation of poverty a primary business of the State and this government’s rhetoric of being ‘anti-elite’, it is puzzling why it has not thought it …

Inflation impact on India’s poor negligible, says FM citing UNDP report
2 years, 5 months ago

Inflation impact on India’s poor negligible, says FM citing UNDP report

The Hindu  

The impact of inflation on India’s poor would be negligible as per a United Nations Development Programme report on ‘Addressing the Cost of Living Crisis in Developing Countries’, which also looked at the ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine war such as energy and food market disruptions. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cited the UNDP’s conclusions in the report to emphasise that …

How Modi’s India Has Succeeded in Bringing Down Poverty in Rural Areas
2 years, 5 months ago

How Modi’s India Has Succeeded in Bringing Down Poverty in Rural Areas

News 18  

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” This oft-cited quote is attributed to Lord Kelvin or William Thomson, who also theorised a completely new temperature scale. The poverty line has been disaggregated state-wise and separately for rural and urban areas. In one of the most cited essays on poverty, Lipton and Ravallion note: “The highest incidence and severity …

Income Inequality Declined in India During Covid-19, Nation Managed Shocks Well: SBI Report
2 years, 5 months ago

Income Inequality Declined in India During Covid-19, Nation Managed Shocks Well: SBI Report

News 18  

Inequality of Income in India has declined significantly since FY17, while inequality has also declined during the pandemic, according to the latest SBI Ecowrap research report. The decline in income inequality has been significant since FY17, the year of big bang formalisation that started with demonetisation, RERA reforms and GST reform in FY18, said the report authored by Soumya Kanti …

Poverty in India: Decline over the decade
2 years, 6 months ago

Poverty in India: Decline over the decade

Live Mint  

Poverty is a much-debated issue. That poverty line is typically defined as a minimum basket of goods and services required for subsistence, converted into a nominal consumption expenditure figure, using appropriate prices. In other words, one uses monthly per capita consumption expenditure to define poverty line. If growth enabled those just below the poverty line to move above, it is …

A poverty trend in search of an explanation
2 years, 6 months ago

A poverty trend in search of an explanation

The Hindu  

A noticeable absence in the blitzkrieg of information on the economy periodically unleashed by the Union government over the past few years has been estimates of poverty. While the level of poverty estimated by these two studies varies considerably, with the one by Roy and van der Weide showing twice the poverty level estimated by Bhalla et al., they share …

India eradicates ‘extreme poverty’ via PMGKY: IMF paper
2 years, 8 months ago

India eradicates ‘extreme poverty’ via PMGKY: IMF paper

The Hindu  

A new IMF paper released on Tuesday, titled ‘Pandemic, Poverty, and Inequality: Evidence from India’ says that ‘extreme poverty was maintained below 1% in 2020 due to Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. Dismissing the NSS 2017-18 consumer expenditure survey as 'ill-fated', this paper claims food subsidies have reduced poverty on a consistent basis since the enactment of the Food …

Ending extreme poverty in India
2 years, 8 months ago

Ending extreme poverty in India

Hindustan Times  

Two recent working papers, one by economists Sutirtha Sinha Roy and Roy van der Weide, at the World Bank, and another co-authored by Surjit Bhalla, an executive director at the IMF along with Arvind Virmani and Karan Bhasin have given alternative estimates for poverty in India for the period after 2011. Bhalla and his co-authors argue that extreme poverty has …

Multidimensional Poverty Index: A new poverty marker
3 years ago

Multidimensional Poverty Index: A new poverty marker

The Hindu  

AT 8.4 per cent, the gross domestic product of the Indian economy in the second quarter of the fiscal reached pre-pandemic levels. According to the index, in Bihar 51.91 per cent of the population is poor, followed by Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya. More than half of the population of Scheduled Tribes, who account for 9.4 per cent …

EXPLAINED: What Cooking Fuel, School Attendance Can Say About Deprivation As India Launches New Poverty Index
3 years ago

EXPLAINED: What Cooking Fuel, School Attendance Can Say About Deprivation As India Launches New Poverty Index

News 18  

India is globally acknowledged to have made big strides on pulling people out of poverty in recent decades. “The National MPI Project is aimed at deconstructing the Global MPI and creating a globally aligned and yet customised India MPI for drawing up comprehensive Reform Action Plans with the larger goal of improving India’s position in the Global MPI rankings,” says …

50% population of Bihar ‘multidimensionally poor’
3 years ago

50% population of Bihar ‘multidimensionally poor’

The Hindu  

With over 50% of the population in the State identified as “multidimensionally poor”, Bihar has the maximum percentage of population living in poverty among all the States and the Union Territories, according to Government think-tank NITI Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index. “The development of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index of India is an important contribution towards instituting a public policy tool …

Poverty in India is on the rise again
3 years, 4 months ago

Poverty in India is on the rise again

The Hindu  

India has not released its Consumption Expenditure Survey data since 2011-12. Based on the Tendulkar poverty line, the poverty estimates for 2004-05 and 2011-12 are to be found in the Planning Commission’s own estimates using the CES of those years. Hence, we have extended the 2011-12 poverty line for each State and used the consumption expenditure reported by the PLFS …

The state of India’s poor must be acknowledged
3 years, 6 months ago

The state of India’s poor must be acknowledged

The Hindu  

The son of a corn merchant-turned sociologist, Charles Booth had little patience for Charles Dickens and others in his time, who used lyrical prose to describe the desperation of the poor in working class London. The first being, the fall in the monthly per capita consumption expenditure of 2017-18 for the first time since 1972-73, which the Government withheld citing …

Covid has pushed too many Indians back into poverty
3 years, 8 months ago

Covid has pushed too many Indians back into poverty

Live Mint  

As the world continues to be ravaged by the covid pandemic, more than a year on, it is becoming increasingly evident that the greatest burden has fallen on the global poor. By contrast, for India, a staggering 75 million people were pushed back into poverty by the covid crisis—this is almost 60% of the global total increase in poverty caused …

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