-The Economic Times Over the first five years of the UPA government, the number of India's poor fell from 37% of the population to a little less than 30% of the population and rural poverty fell faster than urban poverty did. A closer look at the numbers shows that states performed very differently when it came to poverty reduction through the years 2004-05 to 2009-10. States like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa...

There are two messages, one good, the other, bad, in the latest poverty numbers released by the government. The good news first. It is obvious that poverty has declined in aggregate terms, both in rural and urban India. At a national level, it has declined by 7.4 percentage points from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10; rural poverty, over the same period, has declined from 41.8% to 33.8%, and urban...

In an interview with Mint in February, Jairam Ramesh, minister of rural development, was asked whether the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) would be rolled back in the upcoming budget as part of a plan to reduce the fiscal deficit. “How can we roll back a demand-driven programme?” Ramesh had replied. But that is precisely what seems to have happened. On Friday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a...

The Centre on Saturday asserted that adequate funds were available during the2012-13 financial year to meet job demands by below poverty line (BPL) households under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh underlined that he has recommended reallocation of funds for rural development, especially fordrinking water and sanitation projects, to ensure inclusive growth and reflect the percolation of the high growth rate to the rural side. At the...

Sounding a note of caution, the Economic Survey has stressed that for “growth to be inclusive” India must create adequate employment opportunities—a call that underlines existing inequality, including urban-rural income disparity, and concern that it may increase as more young people enter the job market. While India’s unemployment rate has dropped from 8.2% in 2004-05 to 6.6% in 2009-10, the number of jobless is still huge in absolute terms. The...