SSC
Who first introduced the concept of a poverty line in pre-independent India?
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Answer: Option B — Dadabhai Naoroji
Detailed Solution
Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917), known as the "Grand Old Man of India", was the first Indian to estimate a poverty line for India. In his book "Poverty and Un-British Rule in India", published in 1901 (based on his papers from the 1870s), he calculated the minimum cost of living for an Indian, based on the cost of a basic "subsistence diet" of rice or flour, dal, vegetables, ghee, salt and other essentials, needed to keep a prisoner (a "jail diet") healthy. Using 1867-68 prices, he estimated the poverty line at ₹16 to ₹35 per person per year.
Naoroji also gave the "Drain Theory", which argued that British rule was draining India's wealth to Britain through salaries, pensions, interest on loans, profits and "home charges", leaving India poor. He was the first Indian elected to the British House of Commons (1892), and President of the Indian National Congress three times (1886, 1893 and 1906). At the 1906 Calcutta session, he first declared "Swaraj" as the goal of the Congress.
Poverty estimation after Independence:
1962: a Working Group of the Planning Commission set the poverty line at ₹20 per person per month at 1960-61 prices.
1979: the Y.K. Alagh Task Force defined poverty in terms of calorie intake: 2,400 calories per person per day in rural areas and 2,100 in urban areas.
1993: the Lakdawala Expert Group used state-specific poverty lines.
2009: the Suresh Tendulkar Committee moved away from calories to a broader consumption basket including health and education. By its method, poverty was 21.9% in 2011-12.
2014: the C. Rangarajan Committee estimated poverty at 29.5% in 2011-12.
Today, NITI Aayog also publishes the Multidimensional Poverty Index, which measures deprivation in health, education and living standards. It estimated that about 24.8 crore people escaped multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23.
Why not the other options?
M.G. Ranade was an economist and social reformer who co-founded the Prarthana Samaj and the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a moderate leader and Gandhi's political guru.
R.C. Dutt wrote "The Economic History of India" and also supported the drain theory.
Quick tip
Remember: First poverty line = Dadabhai Naoroji ("Poverty and Un-British Rule in India", drain theory); Tendulkar (2009, 21.9%); Rangarajan (2014, 29.5%); multidimensional poverty = NITI Aayog.
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Poverty, Unemployment & Development — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Poverty, Unemployment & Development, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the problems of the Indian economy and how they are measured: poverty and the poverty line, committees on poverty estimation, types of unemployment, human development indices, and the programmes designed to tackle poverty and unemployment. Questions often ask which committee estimated poverty (such as the Lakdawala, Tendulkar and Rangarajan committees), what disguised and seasonal unemployment mean, and which organisation publishes the Human Development Index (UNDP). Rankings and indices change every year, so check the latest reports for those questions. Practise the poverty, unemployment and development questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.