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Difficulty: Very hardPoverty Estimation, Inequality Metrics, and Inclusive Growth Strategies

Consider the following statements regarding official poverty estimation methodologies in India:

1. The Suresh Tendulkar Committee (2009) moved away from underlying calorie consumption anchors and proposed a uniform poverty line basket (PLB) based on urban consumption patterns, explicitly incorporating private expenditure on health and education.
2. The C. Rangarajan Committee (2014) recommended reverting to the Uniform Reference Period (URP) of 30 days for all consumption items to reduce recalled recall bias in National Sample Survey data.
3. The Lakdawala Committee (1993) introduced state-specific poverty lines updated using the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL) for rural areas and Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) for urban areas.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

  1. 1 and 3 onlyAnswer
  2. B
    1 and 2 only
  3. C
    2 and 3 only
  4. D
    1, 2 and 3

Answer

Statements 1 and 3 are correct.
The option stating that statements 1 and 3 only are correct is valid. The Suresh Tendulkar Committee (2009) abolished calorie-intake-based poverty estimation and built a poverty line basket around urban spending patterns that explicitly included health and education expenses. Furthermore, the Lakdawala Committee (1993) introduced state-specific poverty lines using CPI-AL for rural regions and CPI-IW for urban regions. The C. Rangarajan Committee (2014) utilized the Modified Mixed Reference Period (MMRP) rather than the Uniform Reference Period (URP).

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze Statement 1 regarding the Suresh Tendulkar Committee (2009).
Statement 1 is TRUE. Tendulkar moved away from fixed calorie norms (2,400 kcal rural / 2,100 kcal urban) and adopted a uniform all-India urban consumption basket applied to rural areas, integrating private expenditures on health and education.
Previous committees relied heavily on calorie intake anchors established by the Y.K. Alagh Task Force (1979).
2
Analyze Statement 2 regarding the C. Rangarajan Committee (2014) reference period recommendations.
Statement 2 is FALSE. The Rangarajan Committee recommended the Modified Mixed Reference Period (MMRP)—evaluating 7-day recall for specific food items (edible oil, eggs, meat, vegetables, fruits), 30-day recall for remaining food and general items, and 365-day recall for low-frequency items (clothing, footwear, durable goods, education, institutional medical care). It did not revert to URP.
URP (Uniform Reference Period) measures all items over a 30-day recall, which underestimates non-food expenditure and exaggerates recall bias.
3
Analyze Statement 3 regarding the Lakdawala Committee (1993) indexing mechanism.
Statement 3 is TRUE. Lakdawala disaggregated poverty lines by state and recommended updating rural lines using CPI-AL and urban lines using CPI-IW.
This captured spatial variation in living costs across different Indian states.

Key Concept

Methodological evolution of poverty line estimation in India across official expert groups (Lakdawala, Tendulkar, and Rangarajan).
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Topics

Poverty Estimation, Inequality Metrics, and Inclusive Growth Strategies