The government on Thursday set up an expert technical group headed by Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C. Rangarajan to review the Tendulkar Committee methodology for estimating poverty and overhaul the norms in keeping with the present-day prices.

The move follows all-round criticism of the Planning Commission's estimates on poverty released in this March and the controversy it generated in and outside Parliament on capping the poverty line at a daily consumption of Rs 28.65 per capita in cities and at Rs 22.42 in rural areas.

The statistics pertaining to income and expenditures of the citizens presented by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) on Thursday has revealed that food accounted for about 57 per cent of the value of the average rural Indian household consumption during 2009-10 whereas it was 44 per cent in cities. And this, when 60 per cent of India’s rural population lives on less than Rs 35 a day and an identical percentage in several cities lives on Rs 66 per day.

New Delhi About 60 per cent of India's rural population lives on less than Rs 35 a day and nearly as many in cities live on Rs 66 a day, reveals a government survey on income and expenditure.

"In terms of average per capita daily expenditure, it comes out to be about Rs 35 in rural and Rs 66 in urban India. About 60 per cent of the population live with these expenditures or less in rural and urban areas," said Director General of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) J Dash in his preface to the report.

Why Montek Singh Ahluwalia is at the receiving end whenever he puts out any figures on poverty reduction
Suresh Tendulkar died in June last year. But even when he was alive, he was rarely attacked by politicians for his work on calculating poverty. Strangely, the person who ends up getting all the flak for the late economist’s methodology for calculating the poverty line is Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.

The professional divide on Tendulkar’s estimation goes a long way back

A committee is being set up to devise yet another methodology to estimate poverty in India. The step has led to some unhappiness among economists and experts that it amounts to junking the services and competence of an expert like the late Suresh Tendulkar, whose study is sought to be replaced.

Gangtok: The poverty level in Sikkim has gone down with 80,000 people now living below poverty line, according to the new official estimates for 2009-2010 released by the Planning Commission.

While in 2004-2005, poverty level in Sikkim stood at 30.9 per cent with 1,70,000 people living under BPL, in the wake of the intense poverty alleviation programme initiated by the government, it has been significantly reduced in both urban and rural areas, official sources said.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday blamed faulty data provided by NSSO for the low poverty threshold in the country.
The poverty line for 2009-10 has been pegged at Rs 29 per day per capita expenditure for urban population and at Rs 22 per day per person for rural population, which has invited widespread criticism.

NSSO could be severely understating national consumption expenditure, Ahluwalia said.

Plan panel, though, concedes that inequalities did rise marginally after 2004-05

Faced with criticism from opposition parties and civil society on its poverty estimates, the Planning Commission on Tuesday defended its calculations, albeit pointing to “serious” discrepancy in data on consumption expenditure.

The importance of sustainable development and climate change have been put into sharp focus in the latest Economic Survey 2011-12.

The Economic Survey lays special emphasis on the development of a green economy. An important step in this direction is being taken by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation which is to put a green national accounting system which will list environmental costs of development and reflect the depletion of natural resources in generating national income.

Delhi residents are ahead of the others in terms of earning and spending, says a new government survey. At nearly Rs 1.16 lakh, the average annual per capita income of Delhiites is the highest in the country, and at Rs 33,732, the annual per capita expenditure too is the highest, as per the survey.