The World Bank will not reduce financial assistance to India for poverty alleviation measures because of the recent official data that showed a decline in the number of poor people in the country.

The international funding agency takes a long-term view on its commitments and the poverty data released on Monday will not have any bearing on that commitments,

Allaying fears that the ambitious food security bill may not be enacted in the next financial year due to meagre allocation for food subsidy in the Budget, the government on Wednesday said the legislation was expected to implemented by December-end.

The food ministry is mulling changes in various set-ups like the public distribution system for the smooth execution of a food security law, but the Act would increase the food subsidy considerably, almost by 50 per cent over the Budget allocation.

As per the Economic Survey report released by the Department of Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics on Tuesday, poverty is still a major cause for concern for Karnataka.

As in 2009-10, Karnataka has 10.87 million (1.087 crore) poor people (18.5 pc). Andhra Pradesh has recorded 9.3 pc poor, Kerala 8.1 pc and Tamil Nadu 12.9 pc.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for an hour Tuesday morning after opposition members created a ruckus over the government's new concept of people living on less than Rs.28 per day in urban areas and Rs

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday blamed faulty data provided by NSSO for the low poverty threshold in the country.

No. Of People Below Poverty Line Dips To 24.8% From 34.4%

Jaipur: In Rajasthan, if you earn more than Rs 846 per month (Rs 28.20 per day) in urban areas and Rs 755 per month (Rs 25.16 per day) in rural areas, then you are not below poverty line. The data was released by the Planning Commission on Monday. This is a jump from Rs 568.15 per month (Rs 18.93 per day) in urban areas and Rs 478 per month (Rs 15.23 per day) in rural areas for 2004-05.

The budgetary demands of Rs 777. 95 crore of Commerce and Industries and IT departments were cleared by the State Assembly on Tuesday with voice vote.

Opposition parties attacked the government today for the ‘obscenity’ of its poverty estimate figures.

Plan panel, though, concedes that inequalities did rise marginally after 2004-05

Faced with criticism from opposition parties and civil society on its poverty estimates, the Planning Commission on Tuesday defended its calculations, albeit pointing to “serious” discrepancy in data on consumption expenditure.

Despite all tall talks of development, level of poverty in Northeastern states including Meghalaya has increased even though the same has declined in the rest of the country. More alarmingly, poverty level among the rural tribals, who mostly inhabit in North-East, is as high as 47.4 per cent.

This was revealed in the Planning Commission report — Poverty Estimate, released on Monday.