-The Hindu There is absolutely no methodological relationship between the Tendulkar poverty line and the one dollar poverty line. Mihir Shah has defended the poverty line recommended by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee in 2009 in his article in The Hindu (editorial page, "Understanding the Poverty Line", August 5, 2013). Mr. Shah makes two claims. First, he argues that "Tendulkar [...] computed poverty lines for 2004-05 at a level that was equivalent, in...

-PTI New Delhi: Maoist violence in some districts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar has impeded the progress of rural electrification, the Centre admitted in the Lok Sabha today. Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said while progress of rural electrification work in the country under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna (rural electrification scheme) is "generally satisfactory, the progress in some states is "comparatively slow" due to law and order and Maoist violence, and...

-The Hindustan Times * What is a poverty line? The poverty line defines a threshold income. Households earning below this threshold are considered poor. Different countries have different methods of defining the threshold income depending on local socio-economic needs. * Who brings out the poverty estimates in India? The Planning Commission releases the poverty estimates in India. * How is it measured? Poverty is measured based on consumer expenditure surveys of...

-The Hindu Per capita entitlements under the food security bill will not cover beneficiaries as comprehensively as household entitlements The government hopes to secure in this session of Parliament, approval for the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) so that it can replace the food security ordinance. The NFSB, on which the ordinance is based, guarantees supplementary nutrition services through anganwadis for all children under six, midday meals for schoolchildren, and, very importantly, maternity...

-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...