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.

Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan has said that the research and extension activities carried out by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education have positively helped in meeting the livelihood needs of the rural poor, tribals and those living in the fringe forests and facilitating opening of interface with Panchayati Raj institutions in the country.

She said this while speaking at the 20th meeting of the ICFRE Society at Paryavaran Bhawan, New Delhi.

LUCKNOW: Facing flak for the tardy pace of investigation in the NRHM scam, the CBI has demanded for extra hands to help it cope up with the work pressure. In a letter sent to DGP UP last Monday, its Delhi headquarters has requested additional "manpower and material" in view of the magnitude of the NRHM scam which covers practically all districts and thousands of government employees, politicians, and middlemen.

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.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation is funding a pilot project to enable the state’s farmers to reverse the environmental degradation and rural poverty in the state by applying scientific methods to groundwater management.

Baseline studies jointly conducted by the FAO, Centre and state government have identified seven districts in Andhra Pradesh to effectively implement the best practices in sustainable cropping patterns to combat climate change.

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.