On the basis of NFHS-2019-21 survey, the multidimensional poverty in Uttarakhand in 2019-21 was
- (a)11.30 percent
- (b)13.37 percent
- (c)12.55 percent
- (d)9.67 percent
Correct — D, 9.67 percent.
NITI Aayog's report, National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023, drew its latest estimates from NFHS-5, the round conducted in 2019-21. For Uttarakhand it puts the headcount ratio — the share of people counted as multidimensionally poor — at 9.67 percent.
The figure only makes sense beside its predecessor. In NFHS-4 (2015-16) Uttarakhand stood at 17.67 percent. Intensity eased from 44.35 percent to 41.99 percent, taking the MPI value from 0.078 to 0.041.
The pair to carry away is 17.67 percent in 2015-16 falling to 9.67 percent in 2019-21, a drop of exactly 8.00 percentage points. It also places Uttarakhand comfortably under the all-India rate of 14.96 percent for the same round.
- (a)11.30 percent — The state's 2019-21 headcount ratio is 9.67 percent, so 11.30 overstates it, and like the other two wrong options it falls inside the gap between the two survey rounds.
The closest genuine number in Uttarakhand's own table is the rural headcount ratio for 2019-21, 10.84 percent — the value a rural-specific question would want. Urban Uttarakhand stands at 7.00 percent for the same round.
- (b)13.37 percent — This is the highest of the wrong options and lies between Uttarakhand's two published values, 17.67 percent for 2015-16 and 9.67 percent for 2019-21, so it belongs to neither round.
A number in the thirteens would also put the state within about one and a half points of India's own headcount ratio for 2019-21, 14.96 percent. Uttarakhand sits well below the national rate, not alongside it.
- (c)12.55 percent — Also inside the 9.67-to-17.67 band. Choosing it means recalling a vague "about twelve percent" rather than the published state value for the round the stem names.
A near-identical figure does appear in the same report's state table: 12.56 percent is Jammu & Kashmir's headcount ratio for 2015-16 — the wrong jurisdiction and the earlier round. Always fix both before picking a number.
Multidimensional poverty measures deprivation directly instead of inferring it from income. India's National MPI, built on the Alkire-Foster method, scores every person across three dimensions — health and nutrition, education, and standard of living — using twelve weighted indicators.
A person whose weighted deprivation score equals or exceeds the cutoff of 33.33 percent is counted as poor. The headcount ratio (H) is the share of people so counted; intensity (A) is their average deprivation score; the MPI value is H multiplied by A.
Because H, A and the MPI value all describe the same population, they are easy to swap by accident. For Uttarakhand in 2019-21 they read 9.67 percent, 41.99 percent and 0.041 respectively.
NITI Aayog computes the national MPI, and its Progress Review 2023 set the NFHS-5 round (2019-21) against NFHS-4 (2015-16) for 36 States and Union Territories and 707 districts.
The national MPI keeps the ten indicators of the global MPI published by OPHI and UNDP, and adds Maternal Health and Bank Account in line with domestic policy priorities.
The report itself gives, for each State and Union Territory, the headcount ratio, intensity and MPI value for both rounds, printed beside the all-India figures for the same two rounds.
- NITI Aayog's National MPI: A Progress Review 2023 puts Uttarakhand's headcount ratio at 9.67 percent for 2019-21, against 17.67 percent for 2015-16.
- Uttarakhand's intensity of poverty eased from 44.35 percent to 41.99 percent, taking its MPI value from 0.078 to 0.041.
- India's headcount ratio fell from 24.85 percent in 2015-16 to 14.96 percent in 2019-21.
- Within Uttarakhand, rural poverty fell from 21.87 percent to 10.84 percent and urban poverty from 9.89 percent to 7.00 percent.
- The report credits Uttarakhand with 9,17,299 people escaping multidimensional poverty; the all-India figure is 13,54,61,035.
- Uttarakhand accounts for 0.84 percent of India's population in the report's tables.
- India's national MPI retains the global MPI's ten indicators and adds Maternal Health and Bank Account, making twelve in all.
- A person is counted as multidimensionally poor when the weighted deprivation score equals or exceeds the poverty cutoff of 33.33 percent.
- Nutrition is the largest single contributor to Uttarakhand's MPI score, close to 31 percent of it in the report's indicator breakdown.
Figures from NITI Aayog, National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023. The keyed value, 9.67 percent, is the state headcount ratio for 2019-21 — 8.00 percentage points below the 2015-16 figure.
- Answering with the 2015-16 value, 17.67 percent, when the stem names the 2019-21 round — the survey year decides which half of the pair is wanted.
- Putting India's 14.96 percent where the state's own figure belongs; Uttarakhand's rate is the lower of the two.
- Giving the rural figure, 10.84 percent, or the urban figure, 7.00 percent, when the stem asks for the state as a whole.
- Mixing up the three quantities in the same row: headcount ratio 9.67 percent, intensity 41.99 percent, MPI value 0.041.
- Treating NFHS-5 as the index itself — it supplies the data, while the estimate is NITI Aayog's National MPI.
- The three wrong options here — 11.30, 12.55 and 13.37 percent — all sit inside the 9.67-to-17.67 band between the two rounds, so falling in the plausible range is no evidence that a figure is the published one.
The value can be demanded flat, as it is here, or wrapped a step further: which round a quoted figure belongs to, how many percentage points the state fell between rounds, or whether it sits above or below the all-India rate.
The same table also supports items on intensity and the MPI value, and the method behind it invites questions on the three dimensions, the twelve indicators and the 33.33 percent cutoff.
UKPSC_2025_PRE_GSI_Q1472025Same commission and the same index one year later, but the demand is reversed: that item asks which indicator does not belong to the Standard of Living dimension, testing the composition of the national MPI, while this one asks for a published state value from it.
UKPSC_2024_MAINS_GSVI_Q92024Poverty in Uttarakhand from the same commission and the same year, approached from the policy side — schemes run to eradicate it — where this Prelims item asks for the measurement. The Progress Review figures are the natural evidence for such an answer.
UPSC_2026_GS1_Q652026Tests the machinery behind this number — the Alkire-Foster methodology and the twelve indicators of NITI Aayog's MPI, and how they overlap with the UNDP index. Same index, method rather than a state result.
CDS_GK_2023_I_Q672023Also on the National MPI, but asking which indicator is included, with Years of Schooling as the keyed one. It checks the indicator list; this item checks a state figure produced by that list.
UPPSC_2019_PRE_GSI_Q692019Concerns the same survey, NFHS-5, but from the other end: what the survey does and does not cover, rather than a result computed from its data. Useful because the stem here names the survey round, not the index.
- practice — not a real PYQ
According to NITI Aayog's 'National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023', Uttarakhand's multidimensional poverty headcount ratio moved between the two survey rounds from
- (a)17.67 percent in 2015-16 to 9.67 percent in 2019-21
- (b)24.85 percent in 2015-16 to 14.96 percent in 2019-21
- (c)21.87 percent in 2015-16 to 10.84 percent in 2019-21
- (d)9.89 percent in 2015-16 to 7.00 percent in 2019-21
Answera — these are Uttarakhand's state-level headcount ratios for the two rounds, a fall of 8.00 percentage points.Each wrong option is a real pair from the same report, but for a different population: b is India's national pair, c is Uttarakhand's rural pair and d is Uttarakhand's urban pair.
- practice — not a real PYQ
India's National Multidimensional Poverty Index retains the ten indicators of the global MPI and adds two more. These two are
- (a)Maternal Health and Bank Account
- (b)Nutrition and Sanitation
- (c)Years of Schooling and School Attendance
- (d)Drinking Water and Electricity
Answera — NITI Aayog added Maternal Health and Bank Account to the global set in line with national priorities, taking the count to twelve.The other three pairs name indicators already carried over from the global MPI: Nutrition and Sanitation, Years of Schooling and School Attendance, and Drinking Water and Electricity are all part of the original ten.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under India's National Multidimensional Poverty Index, a person is identified as multidimensionally poor when the weighted deprivation score equals or exceeds
- (a)20 percent
- (b)25 percent
- (c)33.33 percent
- (d)50 percent
Answerc — the report fixes the poverty cutoff at 33.33 percent of the weighted indicators, the standard cutoff of the Alkire-Foster dual-cutoff approach.A person scoring 20 or 25 percent is deprived, but stays below that line and is not counted as poor. Setting the bar at 50 percent would count only those deprived in half the weighted indicators, a much narrower group than the index reports.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The 2019-21 estimates published in NITI Aayog's 'National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023' are computed from data of
- (a)the National Family Health Survey-5
- (b)the National Family Health Survey-4
- (c)Census 2011
- (d)the NSS Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2011-12
Answera — NFHS-5 was conducted in 2019-21 and supplies every indicator behind the report's latest state and district estimates.NFHS-4 (2015-16) supplies only the earlier comparison round, so b is the wrong half of the pair. Census 2011 and the 2011-12 consumer expenditure survey are neither the right vintage nor the source of these indicators.