-Livemint.comThere is a growing recognition among policymakers of the need for a multidimensional approach to assess deprivationThere's been some good news for India over the last month. Three different robust, credible measures of poverty have recorded a dramatic reduction in the incidence of poverty in India. The most straightforward of these, the World Bank's estimate of the number of people living on less than $1.90 per day on a purchasing...

For long, economists have argued among themselves whether income should be the only criterion for measuring poverty. After all, in real life a person can face multiple deprivations, say, in terms of access to education, health and living standards, among others. The multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which offers a valuable complement to traditional income-based poverty measures, was first introduced in the 2010 Human Development Report (HDR). The MPI looks at...

-Economic and Political Weekly Through the use of new survey data, the experiences and perceptions of discrimination among Dalits and Muslims have been quantified. One important result is that many respondents report experiencing discrimination at school and in interactions with government officials. These results are even more worrisome when we consider that self-reports of discrimination perhaps underestimate the true extent of the problem. Please click here to access ...

-The Hindu People of different faiths must find a fit between their own distinctive way of reaching the ultimate and a common, basic framework for living together A Minister of the West Bengal government, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, reportedly remarked recently that for Muslims, “our holy scripture, the Quran Sharif, is supreme and if any constitutional provision... contradicts the Quran, then our scripture will prevail and not the Constitution”. This statement is deeply condemnable...

-TheWire.in A recent study has found that higher caste groups have experienced constant and high upward mobility over time, a result that contradicts a popular notion that it is increasingly difficult for upper-caste Hindus to get ahead. New Delhi: A new study focusing on intergenerational mobility – changes in social status between different generations within the same family – claims India’s Muslims to be the least upwardly mobile group, Indian Express reported....