After nearly 15 straight months of double-digit food inflation, the government announced on Thursday that food inflation had dipped to 9.67% for the week that ended on July 17. That's small consolation for most Indians, particularly the poor, who have seen a relentless assault on their food budgets that has resulted in essential items being dropped from the menu, giving rise to a whole new enforced "austerity diet". Since no...

It isn't too much of a stretch to say that India is made up of many nations. A comparison of state-level and country-level data from the newly released multi-dimensional poverty index shows that while Kerala and Goa are at a similar level of development as 'middle-income countries' like Indonesia, Jharkhand and Bihar are similar to 'least-developed countries' like the Democratic Republic of Congo. Earlier this month, the new MPI measure...

India's abysmal track record at ensuring basic levels of nutrition is the greatest contributor to its poverty as measured by the new international Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI). About 645 million people or 55% of India's population is poor as measured by this composite indicator made up of ten markers of education, health and standard of living achievement levels. Developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) for the...

Last year may have been a cruel year for much of the country with slow growth and double-digit food inflation, but India's high net worth individuals (HNWIs) prospered — just over 120,000 in number, or 0.01% of the population, their combined worth is close to one-third of India's Gross National Income (GNI). HNWIs, in this context, are defined as those having investable assets of $1 million or more, excluding primary...

Newly released National Sample Survey data shows that the proportion of students in private educational institutions has increased at the cost of those in government institutions, but private education remains affordable only to upper classes. Meanwhile, expenditure on education, particularly private education, is growing much faster than household budgets. The NSS 64th round (2007-8) records data on participation and expenditure on education after a gap of 11 years. The NSS...