The Niti Aayog recently released its National Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023, according to which the poverty headcount ratio declined from 24.85 percent in 2015-16 to 14.96 percent in 2019-21. In absolute numbers this translates to 135 million people exiting multidimensional poverty in this time period. In addition, a few days earlier, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released its own Multidimensional Poverty Index, which in a press note said that,...
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Poverty and inequality
KEY TRENDS • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...
More »Budget Briefs: FY 2022-23 MGNREGS allocation 9% lower, expenditure outstrips funds - Ria Kasliwal, Mridusmita Bordoloi, Avani Kapur
Accountability Initiative, Centre for Policy Research Budget 2023-24 will be unveiled on February 1. This brief examines the Government of India’s flagship rural employment programme. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). It was launched in 2006 and is the largest scheme of the Department of Rural Development (DoRD) under the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). It aims to provide 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to every rural...
More »Indian banks gave more home loans than agricultural credit
In each of the last three years – from 2020 through 2022 – Indian banks lent more money to retail customers purchasing homes than they did to farmers. In fiscal year (FY)2021-22 commercial banks gaveRs. 17.54 lakh crore worth of housing loans, while agriculture and allied activities got Rs. 15.16 lakh crore. That is nearly 14 percent less. In FY 2021 and FY 2020 – one of which saw a...
More »Rural employment scheme social audits marred by delays -Sobhana K Nair
-The Hindu In four States, auditors’ wages delayed as funds from Centre are yet to arrive The Union Rural Development Ministry (MoRD) has told States that failure to carry out social audit of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) will invite action, including withholding of funds. However, it is the Centre that bears the administrative cost of these Social Audit Units, and inordinate delay in the release of funds...
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