Policy Watch: Lifting 171m from extreme poverty | Upcoming events
Join events with journalist Rajdeep Sardesai and film producer Monisha Advani.
Dear all,
Last week, all but one of the 242 people on the AI171 Ahmedabad-London Gatwick flight died when it crashed into a residential area less than 60 seconds after take-off. At least eight people on the ground were also killed. Bridge India is deeply saddened by this terrible tragedy; our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those affected.
It’s coming up another few busy months for Bridge India. We’ve got some terrific events coming up, with journalist Rajdeep Sardesai (8 July), Monisha Advani (11 July) and some participation in the London Indian Film Festival (16 July onwards). Scroll down for more.
The Nominations Deadline of Friday 4 July is also fast approaching for the annual Asian Achievers Awards, which recognises the outstanding work of individuals from the South Asian community in the UK. Established in 2000, they are consistently recognised as the most prestigious and highly respected such Awards, and featured on BBC News and Sky News. The Awards take place on Friday 19 September at the London Hilton on Park Lane. If you know someone deserving from across business, media, sports and community service, nominate them today.
Our Policy Watch this weeks looks at data from the World Bank, which said India's extreme poverty rate (defined as US$3 a day at 2021 PPP prices) declined sharply to 5.3% of the population over a decade, from 27.1% in 2011-12, lifting 171m from extreme poverty. Read on for more.
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Upcoming events
In Conversation With Rajdeep Sardesai | 6pm, 8 July | Find out more
Join us for an exclusive, closed-door conversation with one of India’s most respected journalists and media commentators, Rajdeep Sardesai. This intimate session offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with a veteran who has played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of Indian broadcast journalism for over three decades.
He will be having a conversation with Bridge India about his career, how the media landscape is changing, and his peerless knowledge of Indian elections around the country. Attendees will also have the opportunity to get a signed copy of Rajdeep’s new book 2024: The Election That Surprised India.
When: 6pm arrivals, 6:30pm start, 8:00pm close | Mon 8 July
Where: Central London tbc
More info: Click here
Tickets: £0 Corporate Members, £10 Members, £15 Non-Members
In Conversation With Monisha Advani | 6pm, 8 July | Find out more
Join us for an exclusive, closed-door conversation with a founder partner of one of India’s leading film production houses, Monisha Advani.
As one of the founding partners of Emmay Entertainment, Monisha’s key responsibility is to lead thecompany’s overall business strategy and growth. She also mentors the succession planning at Emmay, handpicking future leaders and their career development.
Since its inception in 2011, Emmay Entertainment has grown to be among India’s top 5 production houses, serving over 20,000 direct and indirect hires annually, and audiences across theatrical and web platforms.
Just some of Emmay’s recent hits in the cinema and on leading streaming platforms include: Vedaa (with John Abraham), Mumbai Dairies, Rocket Boys, Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, Satyamev Jayate (John Abraham), The Emprire (Kunal Kapoor, Shabana Azmi), Bell Bottom (Akshay Kumar), Batla House (John Abraham), Indoo Ki Jawani (Kiara Advani), Baazaar (Saif Ali Khan), Katti Batti (Kangana Ranaut) and Lucknow Central (Farhan Akhtar).
She will be having a conversation with Bridge India about her career, creating Indian stories, how streaming is changing the film landscape and how she sees the future of Hindi content in India.
When: 6pm arrivals, 6:30pm start, 8:00pm close | Fri 11 July
Where: Central London tbc
More info: Click here
Tickets: £0 Corporate Members, £10 Members, £15 Non-Members
London Indian Film Festival (16-23 July, BFI Southbank and BFI Imax | Find out more)
The UK’s premier such film festival, the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF), is back. LIFF runs July 16-23 at BFI Southbank and BFI Imax. The Birmingham Indian Film Festival runs July 17-23 at the Midlands Arts Centre.
Beyond film screenings, the festival will celebrate emerging British Asian talent through a new industry event developed in collaboration with RIFCO Theatre. The initiative aims to encourage more U.K. South Asians to enter the film industry while exploring co-production opportunities. This professional component will be accompanied by the festival’s popular program of British-Asian shorts.
Policy Watch: Lifting 171m from extreme poverty
Before we get too excited, let’s remember $3 a day isn’t a lot of money.
That comes to Rs 1,300 per person per month or Rs 5,199 for a family of four.
The graphs above show the relevant data points. India’s poverty rate has fallen sharply particularly since 2011. Those who are 0-14 years old are most likely to be in the bottom 40% of the income distribution (49.47% of them). Those with no education (48.27%) or living in rural India (45.44%) are also likely to be at the bottom of the income or consumption distribution.
The lower-middle income country line of $4.20 (rather than the extreme poverty measure at $3) declined by 33.7 percentage points. The World Bank says free and subsidized food transfers supported poverty reduction.
It says India’s labour market is characterised by low female labor force participation (35.6% vs 47% for middle-income countries), high unemployment among tertiary-educated youth (29%), and a high prevalence of unpaid work (16.5%), despite a notable increase in female worker-to-population ratio from 19.2% to 33.8% from 2017-18 to 2023-24.
The improvement in the poverty data is despite demonetisation and the Covid-19 pandemic impacting employment and a reversal of rural-to-urban migration.
What the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (PIB) says
The World Bank had changed its International Poverty Line from $2.15 to $3, which led to 125m more being identified as being in extreme poverty globally, but where India’s data was a positive outlier.
According to the government, in Rural areas, extreme poverty fell from 18.4% (2011-12) to 2.8% (2022-23). In Urban centres, extreme poverty reduced from 10.7% to 1.1% over the same period.
The five most populous states i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh, represented 65% of India’s extreme poor in 2011-12. Now they account for 54% (although the PIB press release puts a very positive spin on it: “By 2022-23, these states contributed to two-thirds of the overall decline in extreme poverty.”)
Employment growth has outpaced the working-age population since 2021-22, with rising employment rates, especially among women. Self-employment has risen, particularly among rural workers and women, contributing to economic participation.
Not everyone is convinced
Critics say a change in methodology, as well as setting very low poverty lines will of course give favourable answers.
India’s 2022-23 Consumption Expenditure Survey (which happened after an 11-year gap) had a different methodology than the one before, making direct comparisons with earlier data “appear favourable, but statistically invalid,” according to Pawan Khera from the Indian National Congress.
Beginning in the 1950s, the Indian government used to conduct a Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) every five years, says The Wire. In 2019, the government decided not to release 2017-2018 CES data, claiming that there were “data quality” issues, while deflecting insinuations that adverse findings were the reason for its decision.
Two papers from 2022, by Bhalla, Bhasin, and Virmani (BBV) and Roy and van der Wiede (RW), used very different techniques, and came up with dramatically different poverty headcount ratio estimates of around 2% and 10% respectively. BBV used national accounts statistics to scale up the consumption expenditure data (i.e. government data). RW used the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (a private sector survey, by the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy).
In its October 2022 brief, the World Bank decided to adopt the RW technique. This was unusual because of its reliance on a survey conducted by a private entity.
In April 2025, the World Bank switched back to using the Indian government’s survey.
Big picture: poverty has fallen in India over the last decade. To what extent, and what you
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The Bridge India Team
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