-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Finance   The Economic Survey 2013-14 presented by the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitely has asked policy makers to design and execute development strategies targeting the young population that was approximately 58 per cent in 2001 and will increase to more than 64 per cent in 2021. The Government has to take timely action to make people healthy, educated and adequately skilled. Social-sector expenditure Expenditure on social services...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Those spending over Rs 32 a day in rural areas and Rs 47 in towns and cities should not be considered poor, an expert panel headed by former RBI governor C Rangarajan said in a report submitted to the BJP government last week. The recommendation, which comes just ahead of the budget session of Parliament, is expected to generate fresh debate over the poverty measure...

-The Hindustan Times Nearly one in three Indians was poor in 2011-12, according to a new report that was commissioned following widespread criticism two years ago that the government grossly underestimated the number of poor in the country by choosing an unrealistic poverty line for such estimates. The panel, headed by former RBI governor C Rangarajan who also was the chairman of the prime minister's economic advisory council in the UPA government,...

-Down to Earth   Poverty line figures hide people's aspirations There are lies, damn lies and statistics, American author Mark Twain once wrote echoing a similar statement by the British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. Statistics aim to reveal a lot, but they conceal vital information. This concealing tendency of statistics explains much of the flak received by the Planning Commission when it released figures on the poverty line. In 2012, the commission announced that...

-The Indian Express   Available data suggests the programme has been effective in reducing rural poverty and gender discrimination Nirmala Sitharaman's misinformation (‘How not to run a programme', IE, May 9) on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which employs one in every four Indian rural households every year, is disappointing. Consider these facts. For the first time in over two decades, the increase in rural consumption (a proxy indicator...