Eradication of poverty remains the prime challenge before the Indian government. However,A panel headed by former PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan has dismissed the Tendulkar Committee report on estimating poverty and said that the number of poor in India was much higher in 2011-12 at 29.5 percent of the population, which means that three out of 10 persons are poor.
As per the report submitted by Rangarajan to Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh earlier, persons spending below Rs 47 a day in cities would be considered poor, much above the Rs 33-per-day mark suggested by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee.
As per the Rangarajan panel estimates, poverty stood at 38.2 percent in 2009-10 and slided to 29.5 percent in 2011-12.
Reema Sharma/Ajeet Kumar
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