CDS Economics · National Income, Growth and Development Indicators
Poverty and Its Measurement
How India draws its poverty line, from Naoroji to the Tendulkar and Rangarajan committees, how the Multidimensional Poverty Index counts the poor, and the schemes CDS asks about.
Why this matters
Eleven CDS questions, four of them in 2023. The committees are the core: Tendulkar was asked twice (2023 (I) and 2024 (I)), and the Multidimensional Poverty Index three times.
Concept 1 of 3: Poverty lines and the committees
A poverty line is the money a person needs each month to buy a minimum basket of food and other needs. The arguments are about what goes in the basket. Early lines counted calories; later committees added health, education and other spending and changed how the spending is recorded.
Definition
In time order:
- Dadabhai Naoroji, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India (1901): the first estimate of a subsistence poverty line, which made poverty a measurable indicator.
- Alagh Task Force (1979): a calorie norm of 2,400 per person per day in rural areas and 2,100 in urban areas (rural work is heavier). The basket also covered clothing, footwear, fuel and light, education and medical needs.
- Lakdawala Committee (1993): State-wise lines, still anchored to calories, on the Uniform Reference Period (URP: 30-day recall for all items).
- Tendulkar Committee (2009): dropped the calorie anchor, added spending on health and education, used the all-India urban poverty line basket as the reference for both rural and urban lines, and moved to the Mixed Reference Period (MRP: 365-day recall for some items). Poverty 2011-12: 21.9 per cent.
- Rangarajan Committee (2014): a food component (calories, protein, fat), a normative level for essential non-food items (clothing, education, health, rent, conveyance) and a behaviourally determined level for other non-food items. Poverty 2011-12: 29.5 per cent.
| Year | Body | Key point |
|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Dadabhai Naoroji | First estimate of a poverty lineQ |
| 1979 | Alagh Task Force | 2,400 calories rural, 2,100 urbanQ |
| 1993 | Lakdawala Committee | State-wise calorie-based lines, uniform reference period |
| 2009 | Tendulkar Committee | No calorie anchor; urban basket as reference; mixed reference period; 21.9 per cent poor in 2011-12Q CDS 2024 (I): Tendulkar used the all-India urban basket as the reference, and did not anchor to calories. |
| 2014 | Rangarajan Committee | Food plus normative non-food plus behavioural non-food; 29.5 per cent poor in 2011-12Q |
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2023 · CDS (I) 2023 — General Knowledge · Q24Hard
Example 1 · National Income, Growth and Development Indicators · Poverty and Its Measurement
The computation of poverty in terms of Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) based on the Mixed Reference Period was recommended by the
Rural calories are higher, not lower
The norm is 2,400 calories in rural areas and 2,100 in urban areas, because rural work is more physical. Options often swap the two.
Tendulkar moved away from calories
The Tendulkar Committee dropped the calorie anchor and added health and education spending. 'Anchored to the official calorie norm' describes the older method.
Concept 2 of 3: The Multidimensional Poverty Index
Income alone can miss poverty: a family may have some cash but no clean water, no schooling and too little food. The Multidimensional Poverty Index counts a person as poor when they are short of several basic things at the same time, and then measures both how many are poor and how deep their poverty runs.
Definition
How it works:
- Global MPI: UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), from 2010. Three dimensions, health, education and standard of living, with 10 indicators.
- A person is multidimensionally poor if their overlapping deprivations reach one third or more of the weighted indicators.
- MPI = H × A: H (headcount ratio) is the share of people who are poor; A (intensity) is the average share of indicators in which the poor are deprived.
- National MPI (NITI Aayog, first report 2021, built on NFHS data): the same three dimensions with 12 indicators, adding maternal health and bank account.
- Education is measured by years of schooling and school attendance, not by the literacy rate.
- Nutrition: a household is deprived if any one member is undernourished; for a woman of 15 to 49 that means a body mass index below 18.5.
Multidimensional Poverty Index
- headcount ratio: share of the population that is poor
- intensity: average share of weighted indicators in which the poor are deprived
Worked example
In a State, 25 per cent of people are multidimensionally poor, and on average the poor are deprived in 40 per cent of the weighted indicators. Find the MPI.
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2026 · CDS (I) 2026 — General Knowledge · Q39Moderate
Example 2 · National Income, Growth and Development Indicators · Poverty and Its Measurement
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is measured by :
Years of schooling, not literacy
The MPI's education indicators are years of schooling and school attendance. Literacy rate, life expectancy and income per head are not MPI indicators.
Concept 3 of 3: Anti-poverty schemes
Two ideas recur. One is a guarantee of paid work for anyone in a village who asks for it. The other is to replace many small subsidies with one cash payment to every citizen.
Definition
The schemes:
- MGNREGA (Act of 2005, in force from February 2006): at least 100 days of unskilled manual wage work in a financial year for every rural household whose adults ask for it. Equal wages for women and men, at least one third of the beneficiaries women. Aims: livelihood security, productive assets, empowerment of women. It runs only in rural areas.
- In December 2025 Parliament passed a law to replace MGNREGA with a new rural jobs guarantee (VB-G RAM G, 125 days). The CDS questions so far ask about MGNREGA as it stood.
- Universal Basic Income (UBI): an unconditional cash payment to every citizen, discussed in the Economic Survey 2016-17 as an alternative to subsidies.
Practice this concept3 quick reps
The same idea in a real exam question:
CDS · 2020 · CDS (I) 2020 — General Knowledge · Q44Moderate
Example 3 · National Income, Growth and Development Indicators · Poverty and Its Measurement
Which one of the following is not an objective of the MGNREGA?
100 days, unskilled, rural
MGNREGA guarantees 100 days (not 150 or 175) of unskilled manual work, only in rural areas, at equal wages for women and men.
UBI is universal
The U in UBI stands for Universal: everyone gets it, with no conditions. 'Unconditional' describes it but is not what the letter stands for.
Summary — formulas & gotchas at a glance
A revision cheat-sheet for the formulas and gotchas above. Click any concept name to jump back to its full explanation.
Formulas (1)
- The Multidimensional Poverty Index
Multidimensional Poverty Index
Reference tables (2)
Poverty lines and the committees5 rows
| Year | Body | Key point |
|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Dadabhai Naoroji | First estimate of a poverty lineQ |
| 1979 | Alagh Task Force | 2,400 calories rural, 2,100 urbanQ |
| 1993 | Lakdawala Committee | State-wise calorie-based lines, uniform reference period |
| 2009 | Tendulkar Committee | No calorie anchor; urban basket as reference; mixed reference period; 21.9 per cent poor in 2011-12Q CDS 2024 (I): Tendulkar used the all-India urban basket as the reference, and did not anchor to calories. |
| 2014 | Rangarajan Committee | Food plus normative non-food plus behavioural non-food; 29.5 per cent poor in 2011-12Q |
Anti-poverty schemes2 rows
Watch out for (5)
- Rural calories are higher, not lower→ Poverty lines and the committees
- Tendulkar moved away from calories→ Poverty lines and the committees
- Years of schooling, not literacy→ The Multidimensional Poverty Index
- 100 days, unskilled, rural→ Anti-poverty schemes
- UBI is universal→ Anti-poverty schemes
Test yourself on National Income, Growth and Development Indicators
20 past CDS questions from this chapter, timed at 20 minutes and marked the way the exam marks it. You see your score and every answer the moment you finish. Free to start.