The Gini coefficient, or the Gini index, measures the inequality of income distribution, whereas a higher value closer to one (or 100 per cent) represents greater inequality. “In the annals of inequality analysis, this decline is unheard of, and especially in the context of high per capita growth,” the article states. This, the economists argued, was more because the PPP of USD 1.9 closely corresponds to the official India Tendulkar poverty line.

“These estimates do not take into account the free food (wheat and rice) supplied by the government to approximately two-thirds of the population, nor utilisation of public health and education,” the authors noted in the commentary. The decline in HCR is remarkable given that in the past it took 30 years for India to witness a similar decline in poverty levels, which has now been witnessed over 11 years, the article said.

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Given the near elimination of extreme poverty, India should now graduate to a higher poverty line, which would provide an opportunity to redefine existing social protection programmes to give greater support to the genuinely poor, it added. “Official data now confirms that India has eliminated extreme poverty as commonly defined in international comparisons,” the economists said.

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