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,...

The Print More than a third of India’s poor, or 415 million people, were pushed out of multidimensional poverty between 2005 and 2021, shows analysis of the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP’s) updated poverty index data. The data of 110 developing countries, collected over varying time periods, indicates that this fall is likely to be the steepest. According to the UNDP’s updated Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report, released Tuesday, about 55 percent of...

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...

A new study suggests that climate change-induced heatwaves in India can hinder or reverse the country’s progress in fulfilling the sustainable development goals (SDGs) Recurrent heatwaves have greater socio-economic impact in India than previously known. A study published in PLOS Climate suggested that heatwaves made more likely by climate change may impede India’s progress toward its sustainable development goals.  India has committed to achieve 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including...

-The Hindu The year 2023 has been declared as the ‘International Year of Millet’ by the United Nations following India’s proposal. Why is India pushing the world to bring these nutri-cereals back to the dining table? The story so far: The Centre on Sunday kicked off the International Year of Millets, announcing a host of activities across the country to promote the cultivation and consumption of the ‘nutri-cereal’. Central ministries, State governments...