The decision, taken under public pressure, can be interpreted as rejection of the Tendulkar Committee report based on which the plan panel highlighted that poverty had come down by around 7% during UPA rule.
The panel was slammed by opposition parties after it released data in March showing a fall in poverty ratio to 29.8% in 2009-10 from 37.2% in 2004-05, based on Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in urban areas and Rs 22.42 in rural areas. The setting up of a new committee within a year of adopting Tendulkar Committee’s recommendations is seen as the government’s bid to divert public attention from the emotive issue. Though it was said officially that there will not be any time limit in view of the task’s enormity, the government expects the report in nine months. Considering that the report will have to be harmonized with the socio-economic census, it is unlikely that the new model will be available before the next general elections.
The move is also seen as a snub to the panel’s deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia who had tried hard to defend the Tendulkar methodology and poverty estimates released in March. Ahluwalia has kept himself at a distance from the fresh move, led by MoS planning, Ashwini Kumar.
Ironically, even members of the plan panel were missing from Kumar’s press conference where he announced the new group.
The technical group, headed by chairman of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan, will have members including Dr Mahendra Dev, director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; Dr K Sundaram, formerly of Delhi School of Economics; Dr Mahesh Vyas of Centre of Monitoring Indian Economy and Dr K L Datta, ex-adviser, Planning Commission. The group is mandated to review the existing methodology and examine whether the poverty line should be fixed solely in terms of a consumption basket or whether other criteria should also be considered.