The latest data of the Planning Commission indicates that poverty has declined to 32 per cent in 2009-10 from 37.2 per cent five years ago. The preliminary estimates are based on the formula suggested by the Tendulkar Committee for computing the number of poor. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday told reporters that the 2009-10 data shows a decline in poverty from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 32...

"We cannot have two Indias. You want the world to believe we are the strongest emerging economy, but millions of poor and hungry people are a stark contrast," the Supreme Court said on Wednesday pointing to a huge gap between poverty eradication measures and spread of the problem. The court's anguish was palpable. A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma asked the government why additional subsidised food grains be...

The Supreme Court today slammed the Centre for sticking to the below-poverty-line estimates of the 1991 census in distributing PDS grain when preliminary figures for the 2010-11 census, showing a much higher number of BPL families, are available. The judges also criticised the income cap fixed by the government to determine families below the poverty line (BPL) by suggesting it was outdated. The 1991 census showed 36 per cent of the population...

What is the benefit when godowns are full and people are starving? ‘People who starve are also citizens of this country…they cannot be denied foodgrains' ‘How can the Planning Commission justify such a meagre amount to determine BPL status?' The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Centre's approach to eradication of malnutrition and its failure to take steps to prevent starvation deaths in certain pockets of the country. A Bench comprising Justice Dalveer Bhandari...

The first results of Census 2011 put India's population at 1,210 million, indicating a demographic transition. CENSUS 2011 is the 15th one undertaken in India since 1872 and the seventh after the country attained Independence. While there have been stray historical references to population counts of one kind or another in earlier periods over much smaller territories within the territory that constitutes present-day India, the consensus view is that the...