BPSC 71st CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 45 of 150

Correct — B, Himachal Pradesh. NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023, which is the document that converts NFHS data into state MPI numbers, puts Himachal Pradesh's headcount ratio at 4.93 per cent in 2019-21, down from 7.59 per cent in 2015-16, with an intensity of deprivation of 40.22 per cent and an MPI value of 0.020. Uttar Pradesh is nowhere near the threshold at 22.93 per cent, having fallen from 37.68 per cent. Jammu and Kashmir is the reason this question needed a ruling: its headcount is 4.80 per cent, comfortably under 6, but NITI Aayog's own table prints it in the Union Territories block and not in the States block, because Jammu and Kashmir ceased to be a State when the Reorganisation Act took effect on 31 October 2019. The stem asks which state or states qualify. BPSC's provisional key read (d), More than one of the above, on the arithmetic alone; when it disposed of objections on 31 October 2025 it issued a final key of (b), recording that the question asks about state or states and makes no mention of Union Territories, and that Jammu and Kashmir was made a Union Territory in October 2019, so only Himachal Pradesh is correct. The final key governs, and this card argues it. One formulation to get right, because it is the standard error repeated across coaching material: Himachal Pradesh is not the only Indian state below 6 per cent. In the same table Kerala stands at 0.55 per cent, Goa at 0.84, Tamil Nadu at 2.20, Sikkim at 2.60, Punjab at 4.75, Mizoram at 5.30 and Telangana at 5.88, with Andhra Pradesh only just above at 6.06. The honest statement is that of the three options this paper offers, only Himachal Pradesh is a state below 6 per cent.

• (a)Jammu and Kashmir — Below the line on the number and still not the answer, which is precisely why this question ended with a revised key. Jammu and Kashmir's headcount fell from 12.56 per cent in 2015-16 to 4.80 per cent in 2019-21 — a drop of 7.76 percentage points, among the steepest in the country — so on arithmetic alone it clears 6 per cent. But NITI Aayog's table classifies it under Union Territories, because the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act took effect on 31 October 2019, and the stem asks for a state. The Commission's final key turns on that single noun.
• (c)Uttar Pradesh — Not close on any reading. Uttar Pradesh recorded 22.93 per cent of its population as multidimensionally poor in 2019-21, almost four times the 6 per cent threshold, though it had improved sharply from 37.68 per cent in 2015-16. What can pull a candidate towards it is a headline rather than a level: the same NITI report notes that Uttar Pradesh topped the country on numbers, with 3.43 crore people escaping multidimensional poverty in five years. A large fall in absolute numbers is not a low headcount ratio.
• (d)More than one of the above — This was BPSC's own provisional answer, and it is the most instructive wrong option on the paper. On the raw figures two of the three options do sit below 6 per cent — Himachal Pradesh at 4.93 and Jammu and Kashmir at 4.80. The final key rejected it on one word in the stem, 'state(s)': Jammu and Kashmir has been a Union Territory since 31 October 2019 and is tabulated as one, so it is not available to be counted. When an option's correctness rests on a constitutional category rather than on a number, reread the stem's noun before you commit.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index does not ask what a household earns. Built on the Alkire-Foster method developed at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, it asks in how many ways a household is simultaneously deprived, across three equally weighted dimensions — health and nutrition, education, and standard of living — resolved into twelve indicators in India's national version. Health carries Nutrition at one-sixth and Child and Adolescent Mortality and Maternal Health at one-twelfth each; Education carries Years of Schooling and School Attendance at one-sixth each; Standard of Living carries Cooking Fuel, Sanitation, Drinking Water, Housing, Electricity, Assets and Bank Account at one twenty-first each. A person counts as multidimensionally poor once their weighted deprivation score reaches 33.33 per cent. India's national MPI adds Maternal Health and Bank Account to the ten indicators of the global index, so Indian and global MPI figures are not interchangeable. Two numbers are then reported and must not be confused: the headcount ratio H, the share of people who are poor, which is what this question asks about; and the intensity A, the average share of indicators in which a poor person is deprived. Their product, H times A, is the MPI value itself. NITI Aayog's Progress Review 2023 applied this to 36 States and Union Territories and 707 districts, comparing NFHS-4 with NFHS-5 to show the national headcount falling from 24.85 per cent to 14.96 per cent.

Reason to this answer in two steps rather than one. First do the arithmetic: of the three places named, Himachal Pradesh at 4.93 per cent and Jammu and Kashmir at 4.80 per cent are under 6, and Uttar Pradesh at 22.93 per cent is not. That takes you to (d), and it is where the Commission itself initially landed. Second, read the stem's noun. It says state or states, and Jammu and Kashmir has not been a state since 31 October 2019 — NITI Aayog's own table separates it into a Union Territories block below the States block. That single classification fact is the discriminator, and it converts a two-answer arithmetic problem into a one-answer legal one. The wider lesson is worth more than the mark. A claim can be true among the options and false in general, and this question is the classic instance: it is correct that of the three choices offered only Himachal Pradesh is a state under 6 per cent, and it is flatly wrong to say Himachal Pradesh is the only state in India under 6 per cent, because Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Punjab, Mizoram and Telangana all are. Two smaller cautions. The stem says 2019-20 while NITI Aayog and NFHS-5 label the round 2019-21, the fieldwork having run in two phases across those years — same survey, looser date. And for a Bihar candidate the reference point is the other end of the table: Bihar has India's highest headcount at 33.76 per cent, so the states in this question are not a picture of the country the exam is set in.

• NITI Aayog's National MPI Progress Review 2023 gives Himachal Pradesh a headcount ratio of 4.93 per cent in 2019-21 against 7.59 per cent in 2015-16, with intensity 40.22 per cent and an MPI value of 0.020; Uttar Pradesh stands at 22.93 per cent, down from 37.68 per cent.
• Jammu and Kashmir's headcount fell from 12.56 per cent to 4.80 per cent, but the report tabulates it under Union Territories rather than States because the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act took effect on 31 October 2019 — the reason BPSC's final key names only Himachal Pradesh.
• Other states below 6 per cent in 2019-21 include Kerala 0.55, Goa 0.84, Tamil Nadu 2.20, Sikkim 2.60, Punjab 4.75, Mizoram 5.30 and Telangana 5.88 per cent, with Andhra Pradesh just above at 6.06 — so Himachal Pradesh is the lowest of the three options offered, not the lowest in India.
• India's national MPI uses three equally weighted dimensions and twelve indicators, with a person counted as poor at a deprivation score of 33.33 per cent or more; the national headcount fell from 24.85 per cent to 14.96 per cent, intensity from 47.14 to 44.39 per cent and the MPI value from 0.117 to 0.066, with 13,54,61,035 people escaping multidimensional poverty.
• Bihar records India's highest headcount ratio — 33.76 per cent in 2019-21, down from 51.89 per cent in 2015-16, with intensity 47.40 per cent and an MPI value of 0.160 — ahead of Jharkhand at 28.81 and Meghalaya at 27.79; the report also credits Bihar with the fastest absolute reduction in MPI value in the country.

• Writing that Himachal Pradesh is the only Indian state below 6 per cent — Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Punjab, Mizoram and Telangana are also below it; the true claim is 'of the three states offered'
• Counting Jammu and Kashmir as a state; it has been a Union Territory since 31 October 2019 and NITI Aayog tabulates it as one, which is what decides this question
• Confusing the headcount ratio with the number of people who escaped poverty — Uttar Pradesh leads India on the second, at 3.43 crore, while remaining at 22.93 per cent on the first

BPSC sets this as a data-recall item with a legal twist buried in the stem's noun, and then had to revise its own key from (d) to (b) to make the twist bind — a reminder that on this paper the phrasing of the question is part of the answer and 'More than one of the above' is a live option, not a formality. UPSC rarely asks a state to be ranked on a poverty statistic. It asks what the measure itself contains, as in 2012 on the MPI's household-level deprivations, or why the measurement varies, as in 2019 on state-wise poverty lines. Learn the method for UPSC and the state table for BPSC.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  As per NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023, which State recorded the highest headcount ratio of multidimensional poverty in 2019-21 ?

  • (a)Jharkhand
  • (b)Bihar
  • (c)Meghalaya
  • (d)Uttar Pradesh

  Answer(b) Bihar — 33.76 per cent in 2019-21, down from 51.89 per cent in 2015-16, ahead of Jharkhand at 28.81 per cent and Meghalaya at 27.79 per cent. Uttar Pradesh, at 22.93 per cent, is lower than all three despite having the largest number of people who escaped poverty.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under India's National Multidimensional Poverty Index, a person is identified as multidimensionally poor when the weighted deprivation score is at least

  • (a)20 per cent
  • (b)25 per cent
  • (c)33.33 per cent
  • (d)50 per cent

  Answer(c) 33.33 per cent — following the Alkire-Foster methodology, a person is counted as MPI poor once the weighted deprivation score across the twelve indicators reaches one-third. 50 per cent is the separate cut-off used to identify the severely poor in some presentations, not the poverty cut-off.