-Down to Earth Government claims a huge drop in poverty numbers but critical indicators-health, malnutrition and wages-continue to be grim. So how did the poor fare better? After a long, long time there was good news to splash as media led with the report of a record 21.9 per cent drop in poverty levels. The July 24 newspaper headlines were celebratory as they reported the Planning Commission's findings that poverty rates...

-The Hindu What it signifies, what it does not tell us and what it will definitely not be used for Great shrillness has marked the current furore over the Planning Commission's latest poverty estimates. No surprise, therefore, that understanding and wisdom have flowed in an inverse proportion. Surprising and sad, however, is the fact that some political leaders have at times spoken in a manner deeply hurtful to the aam aadmi and...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com Kozhikode: Dubai's agriculture minister recently chartered a flight to Kozhikode and, accompanied by a horticulture consultant, headed to the Agriculture Research Station (ARS) at Anakkayam nearby. There the minister, Abdulla Jassim Abdulla M Almarzooqi, placed orders for fruits, spices and ornamental plants. But on his mind was something bigger. He offered free visas and air tickets to the 100 members of the research station's agricultural army, which rather grandly goes...

-The Hindustan Times India's official poverty line-a vital economic statistic-is threatening to snowball into a major political controversy in an election year. Political parties are busy quibbling over the details of defining a poverty line amid a welter of protests from social activists who are accusing it of abdicating its responsibility. Economists set a poverty line to fix a threshold income to get a headcount of poor people in a country. Households...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Manmohan Singh-led UPA government can finally grab an official statistic to burnish its aam aadmi credentials. The percentage of people living below the poverty line has fallen to 21.9 per cent of the population in 2011-12 from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 - the year that the Congress-led UPA stormed to power. The percentage of people below the poverty line has been estimated at 25.7 per cent in...