-The Telegraph The government today set up an expert committee to suggest a new Methodology for determining who is poor and who is not, following widespread condemnation of its existing criteria last year. However, the five-member committee headed by C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, will also examine the existing Methodology, which was suggested by a previous expert panel formed under Suresh Tendulkar. Tendulkar’s Methodology was solely based on...

-IANS The government on Thursday set up a technical panel to review the Tendulkar Committee Methodology for deciding the poverty line for which it has under increasing criticism in recent months.  The technical group panel headed by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C. Rangarajan will "revisit the Methodology for estimation of the poverty and identification of the poor," the Planning Commission said in a statement.  Based on the methodologies suggested by...

-The Hindustan Times The government on Thursday put the controversial poverty estimation in a deep freeze by appointing a new expert group to recommend a new estimation Methodology aimed at linking government subsidies to poor. The group to be led by C Rangarajan, head of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and having three others members is expected to submit its report in nine months, minister of planning Ashwini Kumar told reporters. However, not...

Here is a new set of official statistics that can escalate the politically contentious debate on what constitutes the poverty line. If the average monthly consumption expenditure is taken as the benchmark of what an individual needs to survive, the poverty linewould be Rs 66.10 for urban areas and Rs 35.10 for rural regions, while about 65% of the population will be below this cutoff. The figures, based on the 66th round...

-The Hindu ‘Most cancer deaths are preventable if detected early' Contrary to the perception that cancer mortality is higher in urban areas, a recent study published in The Lancet said the death rate is similar in both urban and rural areas. The study, pointing to an interpretation that literacy can prevent cancer deaths, said mortality rates were two times higher in the least-educated than in the most-educated adults. Conducted between 2001 and 2003 —...