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Purpose: The primary objective of the paper is to examine the asymmetric Cointegration and asymmetric causality between financial development and poverty alleviation on annual data in Indian context over the period from 1980 to 2019. Design/methodology/approach: First nonlinearity test by Brooks et al. (1999) is applied to ascertain the nonlinear behavior of the variables used. Once the nonlinear behavior of variables is confirmed, asymmetric and nonlinear unit root tests by Kapetanios and Shin (2008) are applied to check for the order of integration of selected variables. Next, nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL) is employed to analyze the asymmetric Cointegration. Finally, Hatemi-j- asymmetric causality tests is applied to work out the direction of asymmetric causality. Findings: The empirical findings document the existence of asymmetries in the short-run as well as long-run between poverty and financial development. The asymmetry reveals that negative financial development shocks leave a more profound impact on poverty alleviation than their positive equivalents. The findings of Wald's test also confirm the presence of asymmetric Cointegration. The asymmetric cumulative dynamic multipliers used to examine the behavior of asymmetries and adjustments with respect to time lend credence to the results calculated using NARDL estimator. This result exhibits the robustness of the model. Furthermore, the result emanating from recently introduced asymmetric causality test reveals a unidirectional asymmetric causality between negative shocks in financial development and poverty. The findings of the present study necessitate the need for investigating asymmetric and nonlinear effects in finance–poverty nexus, which existent literature has completely neglected, in order to have relevant policy conclusions. Research limitations/implications: The study used "Per capita consumption expenditure" as a measure for poverty due to lack of continuous time series data on headcount ratio. In future, researchers can extend this study by incorporating headcount ratio as a measure of poverty in their respective works. There is further scope of research on this issue by finding out the impact of formal and informal sources of credit on poverty separately. A panel data study for developing countries over a period of time could further confirm/negate the findings of the present study. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge none of the studies in Indian context has scrutinized asymmetric and nonlinear impact of financial development on poverty. To dredge up asymmetric structures at work, the authors have used the highly celebrated NARDL estimator. To enrich the existent body of knowledge along the lines of asymmetric (nonlinear) linkages, the authors have also used recently introduced asymmetric causality test by Hatemi-j-(2012) to find out the direction asymmetric causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study estimates household poverty by using state specific poverty line for rural and urban sectors separately, as defined by Tendulkar Methodology and estimates logistic regression for identifying the determining factors of household poverty. Taking advantage of Household Consumption Expenditure Data from the 61st (2004-2005) and 68th (2011-2012) round of the National Sample Survey, the study estimates regional level household poverty and consumption expenditure across socio-religious groups in India. In addition, the study measures household consumption expenditure and inequality by using Gini coefficient and Lorenz curves at regional level and among different socio-religious groups in India. We find that the poverty level has declined by 15.52 per cent between 2004-2005 and 2011-2012. Meanwhile across social groups, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes households are comparatively poorer than Other Backward Classes and Others category households. Similarly, in terms of household consumption expenditure inequality, there is no significant difference in the value of Gini ratio and Lorenz curve of Monthly Per capita Consumption Expenditure between the rounds but they diverge towards the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal 1 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations member States in 2015, is to end poverty in all forms everywhere. The major indicator to monitor the goal is the so-called headcount ratio or poverty rate, i.e., proportion or percentage of people under poverty. In India, where nearly a quarter of population still live below the poverty line, monitoring of poverty needs greater attention, more frequently at shorter intervals (e.g., every year) to evaluate the effectiveness of planning, programs and actions taken by the governments to eradicate poverty. Poverty rate computation for India depends on two basic ingredients – rural and urban poverty lines for different states and union territories and average Monthly Per-capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE). While MPCE can be obtained every year, usually from the Consumer Expenditure Survey on shorter schedules with a few exceptions where the information is obtained from another survey, determination of poverty lines is a highly complex, costly and time-consuming process. Poverty lines are essentially determined by a panel of experts who draws their conclusions partly based on their subjective opinions and partly based on data from multiple sources. The main data source the panel uses is the Consumer Expenditure Survey data with a detailed schedule, which are usually available every five years or so. In this paper, we undertake a feasibility study to explore if estimates of headcount ratios or Poverty Ratios in intervening years can be provided in absence of poverty lines by relating poverty ratios with average MPCE through a statistical model. Then we can use the fitted model to predict poverty rates for intervening years based on average MPCE. We explore a few in this work models using Bayesian methodology. The reason behind calling this 'synthetic prediction' rests on the synthetic assumption of model invariance over years, often used in the small area literature. While the data-based assessment of our Bayesian synthetic prediction procedure is encouraging, there is a great potential for improvements on the models presented in this paper, e.g., by incorporating more auxiliary data as they become available. In any case, we expect our preliminary work in this important area will encourage researchers to think about statistical modeling as a possible way to at least partially solve a problem for which no objective solution is currently available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal 1 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations member States in 2015, is to end poverty in all forms everywhere. The major indicator to monitor the goal is the so-called headcount ratio or poverty rate, i.e., proportion or percentage of people under poverty. In India, where nearly a quarter of population still live below the poverty line, monitoring of poverty needs greater attention, more frequently at shorter intervals (e.g., every year) to evaluate the effectiveness of planning, programs and actions taken by the governments to eradicate poverty. Poverty rate computation for India depends on two basic ingredients – rural and urban poverty lines for different states and union territories and average Monthly Per-capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE). While MPCE can be obtained every year, usually from the Consumer Expenditure Survey on shorter schedules with a few exceptions where the information is obtained from another survey, determination of poverty lines is a highly complex, costly and time-consuming process. Poverty lines are essentially determined by a panel of experts who draws their conclusions partly based on their subjective opinions and partly based on data from multiple sources. The main data source the panel uses is the Consumer Expenditure Survey data with a detailed schedule, which are usually available every five years or so. In this paper, we undertake a feasibility study to explore if estimates of headcount ratios or Poverty Ratios in intervening years can be provided in absence of poverty lines by relating poverty ratios with average MPCE through a statistical model. Then we can use the fitted model to predict poverty rates for intervening years based on average MPCE. We explore a few in this work models using Bayesian methodology. The reason behind calling this 'synthetic prediction' rests on the synthetic assumption of model invariance over years, often used in the small area literature. While the data-based assessment of our Bayesian synthetic prediction procedure is encouraging, there is a great potential for improvements on the models presented in this paper, e.g., by incorporating more auxiliary data as they become available. In any case, we expect our preliminary work in this important area will encourage researchers to think about statistical modeling as a possible way to at least partially solve a problem for which no objective solution is currently available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses primary data collected from 325 rural households in one of the remote but densely populated districts of Assam, India, to evaluate the impact of internally generated remittances on household welfare, spending patterns and labour supply decisions of left-behind adult family members. Using selectivity-corrected covariate balancing propensity score matching method and also endogeneity-corrected instrumental variable analysis, the study finds that remittances from kith and kin residing elsewhere in the country serve to increase the monthly per-capita consumption expenditure of rural households and help to lower the level, depth and severity of poverty. Remittances have also been observed to influence household spending patterns with higher proportion of annual expenditure being devoted to food and education by recipient households. In the labour market, remittances are found to give rise to a 'dependency syndrome' as adult members belonging to remittance-receiving households were less likely to enter the labour market. However, no significant adverse impact of remittances on labour intensity by employed workers was observed. Remittances were also found to be lowering the probability of workers being engaged as casual daily wage labourers while enhancing the likelihood of salaried employment and agricultural and non-agricultural businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the relationship between dowries – wealth transfers from the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage – and individual-level poverty in rural India. Based on the estimates of a collective household model, we show that the share of household consumption expenditure allocated to a woman is strongly associated with the dowry she paid at the time of her marriage. We compute poverty rates separately for women and men and find that women's poverty relative to men decreases with dowry. Moreover, women who paid dowries are less likely to be poor relative to women who did not, even when their households' consumption expenditures are the same. Our counterfactual policy analysis indicates that abolishing or reducing dowries (through anti-dowry laws or taxes, for example) may have the unintended effect of aggravating intra-household inequality and increasing women's risk of living in poverty after marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the poverty reduction in terms of food subsidies through Public Distribution System (PDS) is an important means by which the income transfer between poor and rich expenditure classes can be analyzed. The study intends to analyze the impact of PDS on poverty on rural and urban regions. It also makes a comparative assessment between the subsidy transfers among the poor and rich expenditure classes of households. The data for this objective are adopted from 68th round of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report on PDS and other sources of household consumption (2011–2012). The impact of PDS on poverty is measured monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) decile wise by using income transfer method for major 17 states in the NSSO report. The impact of PDS on poverty is estimated through subsidy or implicit income transfer. The results of the study for all India across the rural and urban areas showed that the impact in terms of percentage increase in real MPCE is more for the poorest expenditure class in topmost MPCE deciles for all the states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the nature of poverty by considering both consumption and multidimensional approaches and assesses the change in it due to variation in population subgroups and household characteristics in India between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. We have developed a Multidimensional Poverty Index for India which has the advantage of being comparable with consumption poverty using National Sample Survey Organization data relating to the 'Level and Pattern of Consumer Expenditure' of the latest two rounds. Our analysis shows a significant reduction in consumption poverty as well as multidimensional poverty. Multidimensional poverty has reduced significantly for both consumption poor and non-poor but the reduction has not been uniform across subgroups and household characteristics. Satisfactorily, the reduction was faster among the poorer subgroups. Notwithstanding this trend, urban location, upper strata of social caste, literate head, self- or regular employment and higher level of benefits from Public Distribution System (PDS) have a favorable impact on the nature of poverty. The study strongly recommends the incorporation of the multidimensional approach along with the consumption approach to measure poverty which has high policy relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the economic determinants of female-owned proprietorships for 52 metro cities in India. The National Sample Survey (NSS) unit-level data are used for the analysis. The descriptive results show that women's proprietorship is much lower than its counterpart. The Probit regression results at the individual level show that women entrepreneurs do not have a bank account or computer but use the internet, are not registered under any act or authority, and do not expand considerably. They operate within household premises with a limited number of months and duration of a day, undertaking mainly contract basis. They also face several problems that hinder their activities. City-level factors such as work participation rate, consumption expenditure, higher levels of general and technical degrees, and vocational training are essential. The likelihood of becoming a female entrepreneur is negatively impacted by the two agglomeration variables of population size and participation in mixed activity. City-level poverty and inequality also adversely affect it. State-level Human Development Index, Gender Development Index, and Gender Inequality Index are also significant. Finally, we propose important policies to enable the city environment to improve women's entrepreneurship activities for higher and sustainable economic development. • Female-owned entrepreneurship (FOE) is essential for sustainable and inclusive economic growth in developing countries. • The agglomeration size, unequal economic distribution, and less female-friendly society discourage becoming FOE. • Knowledge spillovers, labour pooling, availability of public services, and infrastructure encourage FOE. • Cities need to increase investment, employment, level of education, and delivery of public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent of poverty in different districts (small domains) of the State of Odisha, India using direct, synthetic, composite, and model based small area estimation techniques. The district level poverty estimates are based on data collected during the 68th round survey (2011-12) of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and 2011 Population Census of India. It is shown that the model-based district level estimates are reasonably more reliable compared to other methods under comparison as confirmed by the diagnostic procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the regional profile of poverty in Uttar Pradesh, one of the most populated and impoverished states of India. It also identifies the factors underlying the inter-regional differences of poverty in the state.Design/methodology/approach Regional estimates have been evaluated by dividing the state into four economically classified regions (Western, Central, Southern, and Eastern), using the unit-level records of two latest available Consumption Expenditure Surveys of NSSO representing the period 2009-2010 and 2011-2012. Poverty has been defined by the latest available Rangarajan Expert Groups’ poverty line and aggregated in terms of headcount ratio and share of below poverty line population. Furthermore, to investigate the correlates of poverty, a survey-based logistic regression has been estimated specifically for each region and for both rural and urban areas.Findings Estimates reveal that though overall poverty in the state has declined, inter-regional poverty trends witness rise in the level of impoverishment particularly in urban Southern Region (SR), rural Eastern Region (ER), and in both rural and urban areas of Central Region. Nevertheless, the inter-regional disparity in poverty has observed a decline; it can further be eliminated if such high poverty reduction in urban ER and rural SR is sustained along with a similar progress in their impoverished counterparts.Originality/value The study recommends that poverty alleviating policies in the state should focus more on reducing the household size, development of socially excluded sub-groups (Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes), delivery of basic facilities (education and health care), and enhancement of employment prospects for casual laborers, with special emphasis on identified impoverished regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although evidence indicates the significant incidence of child labor in India, the role it plays in the economy is still considerably unknown. This study used disaggregated labor data and evaluated local and global supply chains to develop the first comprehensive and systematic assessment of Indian child labor involved in the production of commodities consumed worldwide, considering trade between more than 15,000 industrial sectors across 189 countries. Five questions were addressed: Which children are in child labor?; What is being produced with that labor?; Who are the final consumers?; What amount of financial resources would be needed to support these children?; and What would be the increase in labor production costs if adults were to replace children? It was found that of 9,687,688 children in child labor during July 2011 to June 2012, 95% of cases were linked to the production of just 35 commodities. Whereas most of these commodities were locally consumed, as many as 980,084 children (around 10%) worked for exports, more than what is typically assumed. Exports mainly consisted of agricultural and food products, clothing, minerals, and construction materials and were predominantly destined to 26 countries, the United States ranking first. Nonetheless, this study supports the notion that the simple removal of foreign demand will not solve the problem; it is poverty that needs to be addressed. Supporting children with allowances equal to their earnings would require 935 billion Indian Rupees, within a 13-year period. If adult workers were to replace children, total production costs may increase only by around 1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slow down of growth in last two years has affected the industrial sectors badly. Inflation too declined during this period, but continued to be above the comfort zone, owing primarily to the elevated level of food inflation. The external sector witnessed a remarkable turnaround after the first quarter of 2013-14, and the year ended with a Capital account deficit of 1.7 percent of GDP as against 4.7 percent in 2012-13. Aggregate demand, measured in terms of GDP at constant (2004-05) market prices, registered a growth of 5 percent in the year 2013-14 as against 4.7 per cent in the previous year. The growth in private final consumption, which averaged 7.8 percent during 2013-04 to 2011-12, declined to 5 per cent in 2012-13 and further to 4.8 percent in 2013-14. The poverty ratio declined from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12. In absolute terms, the number of poor declined form 407.1 million in 2004-05 to 269.3 million in 2011-12. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of various socio-economic factors on consumption in rural West Bengal, an eastern state of India, using a regression-based technique reformulated in a spatial framework. The difference of incidences of poverty (head count ratios) in two parts (North and South) of rural West Bengal is then decomposed using the familiar Oaxaca decomposition methodology into an aggregate characteristics effect, which is interpreted as a resource effect and an aggregate coefficients effect, which is interpreted as an efficiency effect. An important observation from the present analysis is that the poorer North Bengal has a scarcity in terms of availability of characteristics (resources) compared to that in South Bengal and the resource scarcity in North Bengal is the dominant factor causing the poverty gap between the two parts of West Bengal. Thus, attention needs to be paid to North Bengal with respect to enhancement of important policy variables like education level, Government aid, and employment opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the relationships between rural income distributions and changes in environmental conditions in southern, western and central India between 1994–95 and 2000–01. Other than the relatively rich, we find that all income strata benefit from an improved environment, and intermediate expenditure households benefit more than the very poor in absolute terms. Higher median consumption expenditures and “richness” are estimated to increase environmental decline, but we do not find a significant impact of income poverty on local environmental health. The results do not support the “poverty trap” conjecture, with environmental degradation driving expenditure reductions that promote offsetting aforestation (which benefits the poor). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using consumption expenditure data of the National Sample Survey 2004-2005, this paper estimates the size of elderly poor and tests the hypotheses that elderly households are not economically better-off compared to non-elderly households in India. Poverty estimates are derived under three scenarios-by applying the official cut-off point of the poverty line to household consumption expenditure (unadjusted), consumption expenditure adjusted to household size and consumption expenditure adjusted to household composition. Results show that an estimated 18 million elderly in India are living below the poverty line. On adjusting the consumption expenditure to household size and composition, there are no significant differences in the incidence of poverty among elderly and non-elderly households in India. This is in contrast to the notion that elderly households are better off than non-elderly households in India. Based on the findings, we suggest that the age dimension should be integrated into social policies for evidence based planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we adopt stochastic dominance techniques in order to examine the performance of rural India, urban India, female headed households and backward caste households in terms of poverty, inequality and welfare. We have used National Sample Survey data on consumer expenditure 66th round and 61 st round for the reference period of 2009-2010 and 2004-2005 respectively. Using scale adjusted expenditure we find for all the subgroups, poverty has decreased. Using these techniques we observe that among the social groups schedule caste and schedule tribe households are the most deprived groups. Empirical results shows that economies of scale plays an important role in the comparision of male and female headed households. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using data on 697 individuals from 375 rural low income households in India, we test expectations on the effects of relative income and conspicuous consumption on subjective well-being. The results of the multi-level regression analyses show that individuals who spent more on conspicuous consumption report lower levels of subjective well-being. Surprisingly an individual's relative income position does not affect feelings of well-being. Motivated by positional concerns, people do not passively accept their relative rank but instead consume conspicuous goods to keep up with the Joneses. Conspicuous consumption always comes at the account of the consumption of basic needs. Our analyses point at a positional treadmill effect of the consumption of status goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses poverty, in the light of the prevailing methodological and definitional debates, in Gujarat, one of the fastest growing states in India. We examine the divergence between the official and nutrition-based poverty lines (PLs) and analyse its possible causes. First, to study whether the 'PL bundle' has changed over time, we test whether poverty is sensitive to changes in the base year; second, we examine the impact of food prices on the change in consumption at given expenditure levels; and third, we study the possible relation between poverty and foodgrain availability. We conclude that poverty is underestimated because official figures do not consider the change in consumption patterns, occurring partly as a result of high relative food prices. Nutrition poverty levels in Gujarat are higher than all-India levels, which creates a case for direct nutritional intervention for the poor.À la lumière des débats conceptuels et méthodologiques dominants, nous cherchons dans cet article à analyser la pauvreté dans le Gujarat, l'un des états indiens dont la croissance économique est la plus rapide. Nous examinons l'écart entre le seuil de pauvreté officiel et le seuil basé sur des critères nutritionnels et nous en analysons les causes possibles (i) Afin de déterminer si le 'panier de biens de première nécessité' a évolué au cours du temps, nous testons si la pauvreté est sensible aux changements qui se produisent au cours d'une année de base donnée; (ii), nous étudions l'impact des prix de la nourriture sur l'évolution de la consommation, à des niveaux de dépenses donnés. (iii) Nous examinons la relation possible entre la pauvreté et la disponibilité des céréales. Nous concluons que la pauvreté est sous-estimée dans la mesure où les chiffres officiels ne prennent pas en compte les changements dans les habitudes de consommation, qui se produisent en partie en raison des prix relativement élevés de la nourriture. Les niveaux de pauvreté alimentaire dans le Gujarat sont plus élevés que ceux du pays dans son ensemble, ce qui tendrait à justifier une intervention directe auprès desplus pauvres sous forme d'aide alimentaire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on mean consumption, poverty (all three FGT measures) and inequality during 2004 for rural India using National Sample Survey (NSS) data for the 60th Round. Mean consumption at the national level is much higher than the poverty line. However, the Gini coefficient is higher than in recent earlier rounds. The headcount ratio is 22.9 per cent. Mean consumption, all three measures of poverty and the Gini coefficient are computed at the level of 20 states and 63 agro-climatic zones in these 20 states. It is surmised that despite impressive growth rates deprivation is pervasive, pockets of severe poverty persist, and inequality is rampant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper notes the prominence of self-help groups (SHGs) within current anti-poverty policy in India, and analyses the impacts of government- and NGO-backed SHGs in rural North Karnataka. It argues that self-help groups represent a partial neoliberalisation of civil society in that they address poverty through low-cost methods that do not challenge the existing distribution of power and resources between the dominant class and the labouring class poor. It finds that intra-group savings and loans and external loans/subsidies can provide marginal economic and political gains for members of the dominant class and those members of the labouring classes whose insecure employment patterns currently provide above poverty line consumption levels, but provide neither material nor political gains for the labouring class poor. Target-oriented SHG catalysts are inattentive to how the social relations of production reproduce poverty and tend to overlook class relations and socio-economic and political differentiation within and outside of groups, which are subject to interference by dominant class local politicians and landowners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a robust multidimensional normative evaluation of the growth episode that India has experienced in the last 15 years. Specifically, the paper compares the evolution, between 1987, 1995 and 2002, of the distribution of several individual attributes on the basis of ethically robust dominance criteria. The individual attributes considered are real consumption (measured at the individual level), literacy rate, under 5 mortality and violent crime rates (all measured at the district levels). District level variables are interpreted as (local) public goods which, along with consumption, contribute to individual well-being. The robust criteria used are generalizations, to more than two attributes, of the first and second order dominance criteria of Atkinson and Bourguignon (Rev Econ Stud 49:183–201, ) and coincide with the unanimity of utilitarian value judgements taken over a specific class of individual utility functions. The main result of the empirical analysis is that all utilitarian rankings of distributions of the four attributes that assume that individual utility functions satisfy the assumptions of second order dominance agree that India is better off in 2002 than in 1987 or 1995 but that these rankings disagree as to how to rank 1987 and 1995. Furthermore, if one removes crime from the list of attributes, the dominance is shown to apply steadily over the whole period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: We utilize household-level consumption expenditure data from India to examine the evolution of inequality during 1983–2004. Various measures of inequality show that inequality levels were relatively stable during 1983–93, but increased during 1993–2004. The increases in inequality have not precluded reductions in poverty, however. They are also more of an urban phenomenon and can be accounted for by increases in returns to education in the urban sector to a considerable extent, especially among households that rely on income from education-intensive services and/or education-intensive occupations. Some of the increases in the returns to education can be linked to economic liberalization undertaken in the 1990s. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present study focuses on the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in Aonla Tehsil of the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh. This study is based on a survey conducted by the researcher with the objective of ascertaining the housing characteristics, income-consumption patterns, awareness as well as benefits received from the selected anti-poverty programmes related to the BPL families. The empirical study reveals that the average household income per month is less than the average household expenditure per month; more than two-third of the household expenditure is on food; and most of the respondents were aware of the selected poverty alleviation programmes but, they failed to avail benefits from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the data base available in four South Asian countries, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, for the examination of trends in real inequality and poverty. Taking the position that sample surveys of household income and consumption are the only really adequate bases on which size distributions of income for a less developed country can be constructed, the paper examines in Section I the reliability of the surveys available in the four countries. Section II evaluates available price data. Section III looks at directions for future development of data collection. The conclusion is reached that sample surveys regularly conducted in these countries do not provide a particularly good basis for this type of analysis. Needed alterations include permitting access to the primary data (or redesign of published tabulations to meet the needs of this type of analysis), use of per capita rather than total household income and consumption, better coverage of regions and occupations, and exploitation of the price data implicit in the survey data collected. Further, the surveys themselves need to be overhauled, especially with regard to timing of interviews. The paper concludes with a short discussion of alternatives to estimates of inequality that can be used to measure absolute deprivation, such as the QUAC stick for identifying nutritional insufficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyse the distribution of consumption expenditure and the incidence of poverty in rural Bihar during the 1960s. While inequality in the distribution of consumption expenditure remained more or less unchanged between 1961-62 and 1970-71, there was a fall in the average real per capita expenditure of all segments of the rural population. Moreover, this period witnessed a marked increase in the proportion of the rural poor, and, in 1970-71, it is estimated that 60 percent of the rural population in Bihar lived below the poverty line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the significance of remittances. There has been an increase in the recorded remittances of United Nation's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) from developing nations, while the record of World Bank shows also increased remittances. However, data from both institutions are recorded from official channels thus, it is concluded that the factual value of the remittances is higher if the recorded remittances are from both formal and informal channels. It is also said that remittances have risen quickly than foreign direct investment and official development aid. Their main task is for lessening poverty and triggering consumption and investment in poorer areas such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia including India, and Pakistan.