Poverty & Development Issues

📖 Measuring poverty

India's approach to poverty measurement has evolved — from early calorie-based measures to the Tendulkar Committee (2009) methodology incorporating health and education spending, and more recently to NITI Aayog's Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which considers health, education, and living standards indicators together rather than income alone.

📊 Key development indicators

• Human Development Index (HDI) — a composite measure by the UNDP combining life expectancy, education, and per capita income.
• Gini coefficient — measures income/wealth inequality within a population (0 = perfect equality, 1 = maximum inequality).
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — a UN framework of 17 goals that India, like other member states, has committed to tracking and achieving by 2030.

🌾 Rural vs urban poverty dynamics

Poverty in India has historically been more concentrated in rural areas, closely linked to agricultural income volatility and limited access to services, though urban poverty presents its own distinct challenges — including informal housing, precarious informal-sector employment, and limited access to urban infrastructure and services.