Poverty & Unemployment

The Y.K. Alagh Committee (1979) was the first to define the poverty line based on minimum nutritional requirements of 2400 kcal in rural areas and 2100 kcal in urban areas.

Disguised unemployment occurs when more people are engaged in a job than are actually required, commonly found in the Indian agricultural sector.

The Kuznets curve suggests that as an economy develops, market forces first increase and then decrease economic inequality.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) through the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) collects data, while NITI Aayog now acts as the nodal body replacing the Planning Commission.

Cyclical unemployment occurs when the economy is in a downturn or recession, leading to a drop in demand for goods and services.

The Global MPI, developed by OPHI and UNDP, measures poverty across 10 indicators grouped under three dimensions: health, education, and standard of living.

Ragnar Nurkse described the vicious cycle of poverty, where low income leads to low savings, low investment, and consequently, low productivity.

The Tendulkar Committee shifted the focus from calorie consumption to a broader measure based on Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE).

Frictional unemployment is the time lag between jobs when a person is searching for a new job or transitioning between them.

The Lorenz curve is a graphical representation of the distribution of income or wealth within a population.

Dadabhai Naoroji authored this seminal work, which laid the foundation for the Drain of Wealth theory and early poverty discourse in India.

Structural unemployment occurs due to a mismatch between the skills workers have and the skills employers need, often due to technological shifts.

Absolute poverty refers to a condition where household income is below a necessary level to maintain basic living standards (food, safe drinking water, sanitation).

The Lakdawala Committee suggested state-specific poverty lines using the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL) and Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW).

Amartya Sen introduced the 'Capability Approach,' arguing that poverty is not just a lack of money but a lack of freedom to achieve well-being.

The Gini coefficient is a statistical measure of distribution intended to represent the income or wealth inequality within a nation.

Casual or seasonal unemployment is common in construction and agriculture, where work is not available throughout the year.

HDI is calculated using Life Expectancy, Education (Mean/Expected years of schooling), and Gross National Income per capita. Social equality is not a direct parameter.

The C. Rangarajan Committee was constituted in 2012 and submitted its report in 2014 to review the methodology for poverty estimation.

Open unemployment exists when people are willing and able to work but are unable to find any work at all.

Absolute poverty is defined by a fixed monetary threshold (the poverty line) to determine the minimum standard of living, whereas relative poverty compares income against the societal average.

Structural unemployment arises from fundamental shifts in the economy, such as technological changes or shifts in industry demand, making existing labor skills obsolete.

PQLI, developed by Morris D. Morris, consists of literacy rate, infant mortality rate, and life expectancy at age one. It specifically excludes economic indicators like income.

Disguised unemployment occurs when more people are employed in a job than are actually needed, commonly seen in rural Indian agriculture.

The Laffer Curve represents the theory that there is an optimal tax rate that maximizes government revenue without discouraging economic activity.

The Tendulkar Committee (2009) moved away from calorie norms and adopted a uniform basket of goods and services to estimate poverty.

The Kuznets Curve posits that as an economy grows, inequality first rises due to industrialization and then falls as the economy reaches a higher level of development.

Frictional unemployment is temporary and occurs when individuals are transitioning between jobs or entering the labor market for the first time.

The Vicious Cycle of Poverty, proposed by Ragnar Nurkse, explains that low income leads to low savings, which leads to low investment and, ultimately, low growth.

In the Gini index, 0 represents perfect equality (everyone has the same income), while 1 represents perfect inequality (one person owns everything).

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) publishes the HDR, which tracks indices like HDI and MPI globally.

Jagdish Bhagwati is a prominent proponent of the view that rapid economic growth is the most effective way to reduce poverty in India.

Seasonal unemployment occurs because agricultural labor demand is high during sowing and harvesting but low during the intervening months.

Engel's Law observes that the proportion of income spent on food declines as income rises, even if the absolute expenditure on food increases.

Dadabhai Naoroji, in his work 'Poverty and Un-British Rule in India', used the cost of a bare minimum subsistence diet to estimate poverty.

The Rangarajan Committee (2014) was tasked with revisiting the poverty line after public criticism of the Tendulkar Committee’s low estimates.

Supply-side policies focus on increasing the productivity and quality of the labor force, such as education and vocational training.

The Lorenz curve graphs the cumulative share of total income received by cumulative shares of the population to visualize income distribution.

Involuntary unemployment occurs when people are actively looking for work and are willing to work but no jobs are available.

SGSY (now NRLM) was designed to help the poor become self-employed through credit and training, distinct from wage-based schemes like NREGA.

Structural unemployment arises from a mismatch between the skills workers possess and the skills demanded by employers due to technological shifts or economic restructuring.

AAY was launched to provide highly subsidized food to millions of the poorest families identified under the Below Poverty Line category.

The 45-degree diagonal line in a Lorenz curve represents a state of perfect equality, where every percentage of the population receives an equal percentage of total income.

The Tendulkar Committee (2009) moved away from the calorie-based approach and adopted a Uniform Poverty Basket approach based on monthly per capita expenditure.

Disguised unemployment occurs when marginal productivity of labor is zero; removing excess workers does not decrease total production.

Ragnar Nurkse popularized the concept of the 'vicious cycle of poverty,' explaining why underdeveloped countries remain trapped in poverty.

Relative poverty measures the economic inequality in society, assessing the income gap between different segments of the population rather than basic survival.

The NCEUS, chaired by Arjun Sengupta, extensively studied the unorganized/informal sector in India, which employs the vast majority of the poor workforce.

The Gini coefficient is a statistical measure of distribution intended to represent the income inequality or wealth inequality within a nation.

SGSY was launched in 1999 to promote self-employment in rural areas through the formation of SHGs, focusing on credit and marketing support.