Poverty and Developmental Issues — Quick Revision

A last-week sheet on poverty. Prelims tests committees and indicators; Mains tests whether you can compare income and deprivation measures.

Poverty Estimation

Committee	Year	Method	Estimate
Dadabhai Naoroji	1901	Subsistence diet cost	First estimate
Alagh Task Force	1979	2,400 kcal rural, 2,100 kcal urban	—
Lakdawala	1993	State-specific lines; CPI-AL, CPI-IW	—
Tendulkar	2009	No calorie anchor; single basket; health and education spending	37.2% (2004-05); 21.9% (2011-12)
Rangarajan	2014	Calories, proteins, fats + non-food; separate baskets	29.5% (2011-12)

Tendulkar lines for 2011-12: Rs 816 (rural) and Rs 1,000 (urban) per person per month. Rangarajan: Rs 972 and Rs 1,407.

Item	Detail
Global MPI	UNDP + OPHI, 2010; 3 dimensions, 10 indicators; Alkire–Foster method
National MPI	NITI Aayog; 3 dimensions, 12 indicators (adds maternal health, bank account)
Progress Review, July 2023	24.85% (2015-16) → 14.96% (2019-21); about 13.5 crore exited
Discussion paper, January 2024	29.17% (2013-14) → 11.28% (2022-23); about 24.82 crore exited

Programme	Key feature
MGNREGA (2005)	100 days of wage work per rural household per year
NFSA (2013)	Up to 75% rural, 50% urban; 35 kg per Antyodaya household
PMGKAY	Free foodgrains; extended for five years from January 2024
DAY-NRLM (2011)	Women’s SHGs and livelihoods
PM-JAY (2018)	Rs 5 lakh health cover per family per year
Aspirational Districts (2018)	112 districts; Aspirational Blocks (2023) — 500 blocks

High-yield facts

Tendulkar dropped the calorie norm; Rangarajan brought back nutritional norms.
National MPI = Global MPI indicators + maternal health + bank account.
HCES 2022-23 MPCE: Rs 3,773 (rural), Rs 6,459 (urban).
World Bank extreme poverty line: $2.15 (2017 PPP), revised to $3.00 (2021 PPP) in 2025.
JAM trinity: Economic Survey 2014-15.

The MPI does not use income or consumption.
MGNREGA’s 100 days are per household, not per person.
NITI Aayog publishes the MPI; the last official income poverty estimate is for 2011-12.