-The Indian Express In Gujarat, growth relies on indebtedness. And relegates development. The Gujarat pattern of development has often been arraigned from the left because of its social deficits. Indeed, the state's social indicators do not match its economic performance. With 23 per cent of its citizens living below the poverty line in 2010, Gujarat does better than the Indian average - 29.8 per cent - but it reduced this proportion by...

-The Business Standard While economic growth may reduce poverty, no systematic correlation between the pace of poverty decline and the pace of economic growth can be found in the data Recent publication of new numbers on poverty by the Planning Commission has revived some old controversies. The numbers show that while the incidence of poverty declined both between 1993-94 and 2004-05 and between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the pace of decline was much...

-Down to Earth Our policy makers should move away from the income criterion for estimating poverty and take cognisance of other indicators Amid mounting criticism and heated debates about the poverty line, a challenge has resurfaced to examine whether there could be a single non-monetary criterion of estimating poverty. A poverty line is a monetary cut-off point below which a person is deemed to be poor. Thus, any attempt to measure poverty...

-The New Indian Express In 1948 when the United Nations passed the covenant ensuring the right to food, vis-à-vis the right to proper livelihood, to which India became a signatory, it did not envisage that the whole issue would be caught up in such an imbroglio - political and economic - as one witnesses today. The original covenant in article 25 ensures the "right to work and livelihood" and right to...

-The Hindu Health activists remind the Prime Minister of his last year's promise of free medication which will fulfil people's right to essential medicines Last year during his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced free distribution of medicines through government hospitals and health centres. One year down the line, however, the promise is far from being fulfilled and the declaration has made...