Q.(a) Why does poverty exist in India ?

Current poverty estimates are based on the Tendulkar Expert Group methodology — option (d).

A frequently asked one-mark question in Kerala Plus One (DHSE) Economics. Several committees have refined how India measures poverty: the Dandekar–Rath study and the Alagh (1979) and Lakdawala (1993) committees defined the poverty line largely on calorie-based nutritional norms. The Tendulkar Expert Group (2009) revised this to include spending on food, education, health, tran …

Economic slowdowns and poverty re-emergence stem from problems in the economy; stable macroeconomic indicators signal health, not distress, so (ii) is not a reason for slowdown. Answer: (d) Only (ii).

The correct option is (c) Dadabhai Naoroji, who pioneered the idea of a poverty line in pre-independent India by taking the 'jail cost of living' as a minimum subsistence benchmark.

Measuring poverty needs a poverty line — a cut-off level of consumption/income below which a person is poor. In colonial India, Dadabhai Naoroji made one of the earliest such estimates using the subsistence cost of feeding a prisoner (the 'jail cost of living') as the yardstick for the minimum a person needs.

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Dadabhai Naoroji used the 'jail cost of living' to work out an early poverty line.

The idea of a poverty line began with early estimates of the minimum subsistence needed to survive. Dadabhai Naoroji, one of India's first nationalist economists (famous for his 'drain of wealth' theory), used the 'jail cost of living' — the cost of the minimum diet prescribed for prisoners — as a reference for estimating the subsistence level of the population. This is studied in the Kerala Plus One (DHSE) economics treatment of poverty.

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The poverty line is the benchmark that separates the poor from the non-poor based on a minimum acceptable standard of living.

The poverty line is a monetary threshold representing the minimum consumption expenditure (covering a prescribed calorie intake, and basic non-food needs like clothing, footwear, fuel, education, and healthcare) considered necessary to satisfy the basic minimum needs of a person. Anyone with consumption/income below this line is classified as poor; anyone above it is classified as non-poor. It is estimated periodically using data from large consumer expenditure surveys (e.g., by bodies such as …

India's rural poverty line is set at a minimum calorie norm of 2,400 calories per person per day (2,100 for urban areas).

India has historically defined its poverty line using a minimum calorie-intake-based method, converted into a monetary expenditure level that would allow a person to afford that minimum nutritional requirement, along with some non-food essentials. Because rural residents, on average, perform more physically demanding work and have historically had this slightly higher calorie norm applied to them, the poverty line calorie norm for rural India is set higher, at 2,400 calories per person per day, compared to 2,100 calories per person per day for urban India (whe …

Relative poverty refers to poverty measured by comparison — between income classes, regions, or countries — rather than against a fixed minimum subsistence standard, which is what absolute poverty measures.

Poverty is conventionally studied in two senses:

1. Absolute poverty — the number of people living below a defined "poverty line," a fixed minimum level of income or consumption (calorie-based, in India's case) needed for basic subsistence, irrespective of how others are faring.
2. Relative poverty — poverty seen through comparison of living standards across different classes, regions, or countries — e.g., the poorest 20% of a population compared with the richest 20%, or one state's poverty compared with another's, or one country's poverty compared with another's. …

The expected option is (a) Planning Commission.

Historically (and as per this syllabus), the Planning Commission was the official body responsible for estimating and publishing poverty figures for India, based on data on household consumption expenditure collected by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), using poverty-line methodologies (e.g. the Lakdawala and later the Tendulkar methodology).

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Poverty line = the minimum consumption/income benchmark for classifying a person as poor.

The poverty line is a benchmark figure of per capita income or consumption expenditure that is considered the minimum necessary to fulfil basic needs — traditionally, a minimum level of calorie intake (e.g. 2,400 kcal/day in rural areas and 2,100 kcal/day in urban areas in India's older methodology), along with a provision for some essential non-food expenditure (clothing, shelter, etc.). Anyone whose income/consumption expenditure falls below …