Magic formula for poverty removal: just lower the poverty line!   New Delhi: this is a trick no lazy student of school math needs to train in. How many times did you arrive at right answers in your math homework in school through the widely known formula of inserting the answer somewhere along the steps and proudly arriving at it in the end?  New Planning Commission data now show poverty has declined eight per cent in the past five years. It has done so by simply redefining the poverty line – best way to reduce poverty while playing with your calculator! The updated poverty estimates... 

Development Days Why the poor in India are still hungry By Michael Neri   One disadvantage of having world class economists in government is that their rationalizations and justifications for policy failures can be hard to argue with and negate –such is the sophistication and sophistry at their command.  That has certainly been the case in India, where official claims that poverty has been reduced sharply in recent times, have been dressed up in credible data and impeccable analysis. But every now and then, an inconvenient truth jumps out and tears into the smoke screen of self-serving...