-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 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 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 Asks Manmohan Singh to take a relook at it Chennai: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take a relook at the contours of food security for the country in the wake of the Centre promulgating the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013. Lashing out at the Centre for "unilaterally and hastily" coming out with the Ordinance, she wanted a Bill reflecting Tamil Nadu's concerns adequately to replace the...

-IndiaResists.com The ongoing debate between two stalwart economists, Amartya Sen and Jagdish Bhagwati, must be joined by those who understand contemporary realities and challenges in terms altogether different from those of mainstream economists. In a recent (July 27) article in Times of India, Bhagwati's co-author Arvind Panagariya characterizes the differences between the two in the following terms. Sen favours education and health measures as being the first steps to tackle poverty...