The first-ever comprehensive review of India's anti-poverty schemes has found that schemes like the MGNREGS that do not specifically seek to identify the poor are most successful in actually covering them. This is a significant finding given that many in the government have been arguing for the opposite — more rigorous external targeting — ahead of the 2011 bpl census. The World Bank on Wednesday released a review of centrally-sponsored social...

The income limit for households for qualifying as a beneficiary under the bpl (below poverty line) list has been pegged at about Rs. 27,000 per annum, according to the methodology approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday. A household with an annual earning of more than Rs. 27,000 will stand excluded from the bpl list. This is what the automatic exclusion and automatic inclusion criteria and the seven deprivation indicators are...

-Deccan Chronicle   After initiating discussion on the proposed Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, Union rural development minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Friday expressed confidence that the Central government would be able to take the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress on board on the issue. He reiterated that the Centre would be able to draft a “pro-farmer” land acquisition law. The Trinamul Congress had been opposed to changes in land acquisition laws. Even RLD chief...

Exercise begins in June, but beneficiaries of govt schemes will still be those identified as poor by Plan panel India has embarked on an exerciseto identify the poor that will in reality end up choosing who will be eligible for benefits and who won’t, an outcome that could be controversial. The Union cabinet on Thursday approved the launch in June of a census to identify those living below the poverty line (bpl),...

Government has redefined what constitutes poverty A nationwide survey that will simultaneously map the economic, caste and religious backgrounds of the entire population was approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday. The survey marks two firsts: firstly, in a break with past practice, the Below Poverty Line (bpl) Census has been widened to include urban areas; earlier, it was restricted to rural India. Secondly, the caste headcount, which will be conducted simultaneously...