Cut The Clutter:How ‘poor’ Bengal has beaten ‘rich’ Gujarat: Niti Aayog report and grasping what’s counterintuitive

‘Boom state’ Gujarat has a per capita income twice that of ‘laggard’ West Bengal, but the two states have nearly the same share of population under the poverty line. Stunned?

Released earlier this month, the Niti Aayog ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’ defines poverty as going much beyond per capita income. In Ep 1281 of Cut The Clutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta delves into the Niti Aayog report — based on Modi govt data — to explain the different criteria of poverty, and how it turns conventional calculations on their head. Based on data mined from the index, he explains why Bengal appears to be doing better than Gujarat on many counts.