One man’s fiscal problem is another man’s lifeline. Trigger happy bureaucrats and economists may love shooting down subsidies because it bloats the fiscal deficit and burdens the government but the simple fact is that in a one billion strong nation, in which nearly one in every three live below the poverty line, one needs an effective and efficient method through which privileged tax payers can support the poor. Last week, finance...

-The Economic Times Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday blamed faulty data provided by NSSO for the low poverty threshold in the country. The poverty line for 2009-10 has been pegged at Rs 29 per day per capita expenditure for Urban Population and at Rs 22 per day per person for rural population, which has invited widespread criticism. NSSO could be severely understating national consumption expenditure, Ahluwalia said. “Earlier, the NSSO...

Trying—and failing—to live on the govt’s definition of ‘not poor’ Dietetics Of Poverty     Three cups of tea, adding up to about 150 calories     Two slices of bread (100 calories)     Two pieces of kulcha with chhole (about 425 calories)     Bread and tea hardly contain any nutrients. Milk may provide some calcium.     Near-starvation diets, with hardly any vitamins or minerals, can lead to a breakdown of muscles and weight loss over a...

-The Deccan Herald   Survey says the poor formed 18.5 pc of the population in 2009-10 Poverty in the State continues to be highest among the southern states. As per the Economic Survey report released by the Department of Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics on Tuesday, poverty is still a major cause for concern for Karnataka. As in 2009-10, Karnataka has 10.87 million (1.087 crore) poor people (18.5 pc). Andhra Pradesh has recorded 9.3 pc poor,...

-The Telegraph On Monday mornings, the white ambassadors with red beacons go missing from the premises of the municipality in Visakhapatnam. Instead, a queue of bicycles adorns the parking ground in front of the office. Commissioner B. Ramanjaneyalu and his senior officials may be entitled to government cars but on the week’s first working day, they have to leave the comfort of their cars behind and compulsorily bike to office. It’s all part...