MPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 100 of 100

Correct — option (4), '(b) and (c)'. Two of the four statements are false, and they fail for different reasons, so the question has to be worked in two steps. Statement (a) is false on the publisher. The global Multidimensional Poverty Index report is produced jointly by the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford — not by the World Bank. The confusion is understandable, because the World Bank is the institution that maintains the international poverty line measured in dollars a day and publishes its own poverty reporting; but the multidimensional index is a UNDP and Oxford product. Striking statement (a) removes option (1) and option (2) at once, since both contain it. Statement (b) is correct. The 2025 edition, launched on 17 October 2025 to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, is titled 'Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards', and its central exercise is to lay climate hazard data over multidimensional poverty data — the first time the report has done so — in order to see how far poor people are exposed to climate risk. Statement (c) is correct and reproduces the report's own list. The four hazards examined are high heat, drought, flood and air pollution. The report's headline finding follows from that overlay: of about 1.1 billion people living in acute multidimensional poverty across 109 countries, roughly 887 million — nearly four in five — are exposed to at least one of these hazards, 651 million to two or more, and 309 million to three or four at once. Statement (d) is false, and it is the statement that separates the two surviving options. Multidimensional poverty in South Asia has fallen substantially, not risen greatly; the region has recorded some of the largest reductions measured anywhere, India's own decline over the years to the early 2020s being the single largest documented in the series. A report whose purpose is to map the overlap between poverty and climate hazards does not, and could not credibly, claim that South Asian poverty has greatly increased. With (d) rejected, option (3) falls and option (4) stands. The general habit worth taking away: in a four-statement set, check the attribution statement first. Who publishes a report is the cheapest thing for an examiner to alter and the fastest thing for a prepared candidate to check, and here it eliminates half the option list in one move.

• (1)(a), (b), (c) and (d) — The blanket option, and it fails twice over — on the publisher in statement (a), which is the UNDP with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative rather than the World Bank, and on statement (d), which asserts a large increase in South Asian poverty when the region has in fact recorded major reductions. Two independent falsifications in a single option make this the weakest choice on the page.
• (2)(a), (b) and (c) — This gets the substance of the 2025 report right — the poverty and climate focus in statement (b) and the four hazards in statement (c) — but keeps the false attribution in statement (a). It is the option for a candidate who has read about the report's findings without registering which institutions produce it, and it is a reminder that in report-based questions the publisher is examined at least as often as the contents.
• (3)(b), (c) and (d) — This correctly drops the World Bank attribution but keeps statement (d), the claim that poverty in South Asia has greatly increased. That is the reverse of what the multidimensional poverty series records: South Asia, and India within it, has shown the largest documented declines in multidimensional poverty. The option is the closest miss in the set, and the trap is directional — a candidate who knows the report is about hardship and climate risk may assume its message must be that poverty is worsening everywhere.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index measures poverty as a set of overlapping deprivations rather than as a shortfall of income. It uses three dimensions with equal weight — health, education and standard of living — expressed through ten indicators: nutrition and child mortality under health; years of schooling and school attendance under education; and cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets under standard of living. A person is counted as multidimensionally poor when deprived in at least one-third of the weighted indicators. The index is the product of the headcount of the poor and the average intensity of their deprivation, which is what allows it to distinguish a country where many people are just below the threshold from one where fewer people are far below it. The global index is published by the United Nations Development Programme with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative; India separately maintains a National Multidimensional Poverty Index through NITI Aayog, which extends the global framework with additional indicators reflecting national priorities.

The 2025 edition, 'Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards', was launched on 17 October 2025 and did something the series had not previously attempted: it overlaid climate hazard exposure on the poverty map. Working across 109 countries covering about 6.3 billion people, it found roughly 1.1 billion — about 18 per cent — in acute multidimensional poverty, mostly young, mostly rural and concentrated in countries with low human development, with lack of clean cooking fuel, adequate housing, sanitation, nutrition and electricity among the most common deprivations. Overlaying the four hazards showed that nearly 887 million of those 1.1 billion face at least one, 651 million face two or more, and 309 million face three or four simultaneously. The policy argument that follows is that poverty reduction and climate adaptation cannot be planned as separate programmes, because the same households are exposed to both. Note for the exam that this is one of several institutions publishing on poverty, each with its own instrument — the World Bank with the international poverty line, the UNDP with the Human Development Report and this index, and NITI Aayog with the national index — and questions routinely test whether the candidate can attach the right instrument to the right body.

• The global Multidimensional Poverty Index report is published jointly by the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford — not by the World Bank
• The 2025 report, 'Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards', was launched on 17 October 2025, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and for the first time overlays climate hazard data on multidimensional poverty data
• It examines four climate hazards — high heat, drought, flood and air pollution
• Across 109 countries covering about 6.3 billion people, roughly 1.1 billion live in acute multidimensional poverty; about 887 million of them face at least one of the four hazards, 651 million two or more, and 309 million three or four at once
• The index uses three equally weighted dimensions — health, education and standard of living — across ten indicators, with a person counted as poor when deprived in at least one-third of the weighted indicators

• Attributing the Multidimensional Poverty Index to the World Bank. The World Bank owns the dollar-a-day international poverty line; the multidimensional index belongs to the UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative
• Assuming a report about hardship must report worsening conditions. The 2025 report documents wide exposure to climate hazards while the long-run record for South Asia shows large declines in multidimensional poverty
• Confusing multidimensional poverty with income poverty. They measure different things, and a country can move differently on the two — which is why the two figures for India are often quoted side by side and mistaken for a contradiction

International reports and indices are examined in almost every State PSC paper, and the questions concentrate on three things: which body publishes the report, what its current edition's theme is, and India's position or a headline number. The falsification is planted in the publisher more often than anywhere else, because it is a single word that can be swapped without disturbing the rest of the statement. Build the revision unit accordingly — one line per report, giving the publishing institution, the current theme or title, the release month and one or two headline findings — and check the publisher first whenever a statement set opens with an attribution.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The global Multidimensional Poverty Index report is published jointly by which two institutions ?

  • (a)The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
  • (b)The UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative
  • (c)The World Economic Forum and the OECD
  • (d)UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization

  Answer(b) The UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative — the index is a UNDP and University of Oxford product. The World Bank maintains the separate international poverty line measured in dollars a day.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Multidimensional Poverty Index measures deprivation across how many dimensions and indicators in its global form ?

  • (a)Two dimensions and eight indicators
  • (b)Three dimensions and ten indicators
  • (c)Four dimensions and twelve indicators
  • (d)Five dimensions and fifteen indicators

  Answer(b) Three dimensions and ten indicators — health (nutrition, child mortality), education (years of schooling, school attendance) and standard of living (cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets). A person is counted as multidimensionally poor when deprived in at least one-third of the weighted indicators.