-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...

-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...

-The Times of India Jayati Ghosh is an economist specializing in globalisation and employment in developing nations. Speaking with Ashish Yechury, Ghosh discussed the controversy over defining poverty, ideas about economic growth - and a season of 'Marie Antoinette' economists: * What's your view of India's poverty line? It's very good the media's realised our poverty line is ridiculously low. These lines were developed 40 years ago in a very different social,...

-The Hindu What it signifies, what it does not tell us and what it will definitely not be used for Great shrillness has marked the current furore over the Planning Commission's latest poverty estimates. No surprise, therefore, that understanding and wisdom have flowed in an inverse proportion. Surprising and sad, however, is the fact that some political leaders have at times spoken in a manner deeply hurtful to the aam aadmi and...

-The Hindu Despite its many flaws, the food security bill is an opportunity to end the leakages from the PDS and prevent wastage of public resources The National Food Security Bill, now an ordinance, has been a target of sustained attacks in the business media in recent weeks. There is nothing wrong, of course, in being critical of the bill, or even opposed to it. Indeed, the bill has many flaws. What...