Which of the following is NOT an indicator for the dimension of Standard of Living in India’s National Multidimensional Poverty Index?
- (a)Cooking fuel
- (b)Drinking water
- (c)Years of schooling
- (d)Sanitation
Correct — C, Years of schooling.
NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index rests on three equally weighted dimensions: Health, Education and Standard of Living. Years of schooling is one of the two indicators under Education, the other being school attendance.
The Standard of Living dimension carries seven indicators, and every one of them is a household amenity or asset that a survey enumerator can record on a visit: cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and a bank account.
Carry away the mapping, not the phrase: in this index, Standard of Living is a checklist of household amenities and assets, while schooling is scored under Education.
- (a)Cooking fuel — Cooking fuel is one of the seven Standard of Living indicators. A household is recorded as deprived when it cooks on a solid fuel such as wood, dung or coal instead of a clean cooking fuel.
It is the right answer to a question asking which of these the index scores under Standard of Living — which is exactly why a NOT stem requires leaving it alone.
- (b)Drinking water — Drinking water sits under Standard of Living too. The indicator turns on whether the household draws water from an improved source, and whether that source is close enough to reach without a long walk.
Pick it and you have named the classic living-standard amenity the index measures, which is the answer a positively worded version of this stem would want.
- (d)Sanitation — Sanitation is a Standard of Living indicator as well, recording deprivation where the household has no improved sanitation facility or has to share one with other households.
It belongs to the same amenity cluster as cooking fuel and drinking water, so it survives the NOT filter rather than being caught by it.
A multidimensional poverty index measures poverty as a bundle of simultaneous deprivations instead of as income falling below a line. Each household is scored on a fixed list of indicators, the indicators are grouped into dimensions, and each carries a set weight.
A person is identified as multidimensionally poor once the weighted deprivations of their household reach at least one-third. The headcount ratio — the share of people who are poor — is then combined with the average intensity of their deprivation to give the index value.
India's National MPI applies this design through NITI Aayog, using the Alkire-Foster method and drawing its household data from the National Family Health Survey.
The question is about the architecture of the index rather than its findings: which indicator has been filed under which dimension.
The National MPI adapts the global MPI published by OPHI and UNDP. It keeps the same three dimensions but adds two indicators of its own — maternal health under Health and bank account under Standard of Living — taking the count from ten to twelve.
That design is why Standard of Living here reads as a list of household amenities and assets rather than as an earnings or expenditure measure.
- NITI Aayog's National MPI has three dimensions — Health, Education and Standard of Living — each carrying a weight of one-third.
- The index uses twelve indicators, seven of which fall under the Standard of Living dimension.
- Standard of Living covers cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank account.
- Education is measured by two indicators, years of schooling and school attendance, each weighted one-sixth.
- Health is measured by nutrition (weight one-sixth), child and adolescent mortality (one-twelfth) and maternal health (one-twelfth).
- Each of the seven Standard of Living indicators carries a weight of one twenty-first.
- Maternal health and bank account are the two indicators India adds to the global MPI's set of ten.
- The index applies the Alkire-Foster method, identifying a person as poor once their household's weighted deprivation score reaches one-third.
- The National MPI draws its household data from the National Family Health Survey.
Seven of the twelve indicators fall under Standard of Living; years of schooling is filed under Education.
- 'Standard of Living' invites an income reading. In this index it is a set of household amenity and asset deprivations, so an education indicator does not belong there however strongly schooling shapes living standards.
- The stem asks which is NOT an indicator of the dimension, so the three options that describe the index correctly are the ones to reject.
- Mixing the global MPI's ten indicators with the National MPI's twelve: maternal health and bank account are the two India-specific additions.
- Treating years of schooling and school attendance as one thing. They are two separate Education indicators with different definitions.
- Reaching for literacy rate as the education measure. The Education dimension is scored on years of schooling and school attendance.
One form is a straight match between an indicator and its dimension, phrased positively ('which of the following is an indicator of...') or, as here, inverted with a NOT.
It also appears as a count question — how many dimensions, how many indicators — and as a comparison between the National MPI and the global MPI, where the two India-specific indicators are the pivot on which the item turns.
A neighbouring form asks who publishes which index, separating NITI Aayog's national exercise from the OPHI and UNDP global report.
GEO_GS_2023_Q662023The same fact approached from the other side: it asks which parameters represent the Education dimension of the National MPI, listing school attendance, years of schooling and literacy rate. It settles that years of schooling is scored under Education and that literacy rate is not the education measure — the mapping this UKPSC item asks you to read in reverse, from the Standard of Living side.
CDS_GK_2023_I_Q672023Shares an option with this item: it offers 'Years of schooling' and asks which indicator the National MPI includes. The fact tested is the same list, but the direction is reversed — there the point is that years of schooling is in the index, here that it belongs to Education rather than Standard of Living.
UPPSC_2019_PRE_GSI_Q662019Same index, one level higher: it asks which dimensions the MPI contains — health, education and living standard. Answering it needs only the three dimension names, while this UKPSC item needs the indicator sitting inside one named dimension.
UPSC_2026_GS1_Q652026Also structural, but broader: it pulls in the Alkire-Foster method, the twelve-indicator count and how NITI Aayog's indicator set relates to the UNDP one. This question draws on the same architecture but tests only the indicator-to-dimension mapping.
UKPSC_2023_MAINS_UKPCSMainsEco2023_Q42023Same commission and same index, but a findings question — which states came out poorest on NITI Aayog's MPI report. It rewards knowing the results; this prelims item rewards knowing how the index is built.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is an indicator of the Health dimension in NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index?
- (a)Bank account
- (b)Maternal health
- (c)School attendance
- (d)Housing
Answerb — Maternal health is one of the three Health indicators of the National MPI, alongside nutrition and child and adolescent mortality.Bank account and housing are both Standard of Living indicators, and school attendance is one of the two Education indicators, so each of them sits in a different dimension.
- practice — not a real PYQ
How many of the twelve indicators of NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index fall under the Standard of Living dimension?
- (a)Five
- (b)Six
- (c)Seven
- (d)Ten
Answerc — Standard of Living carries seven indicators: cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank account.Five and six both fall short of that list. Ten is the number of indicators in the global MPI taken as a whole, not the count under a single dimension of the National MPI.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which two indicators does NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index add to the indicator set of the global MPI?
- (a)Housing and assets
- (b)Maternal health and bank account
- (c)Electricity and cooking fuel
- (d)Nutrition and school attendance
Answerb — Maternal health is added to the Health dimension and bank account to Standard of Living, taking the National MPI from the global set's ten indicators to twelve.Housing, assets, electricity and cooking fuel are Standard of Living indicators the two indices share. Nutrition and school attendance are likewise part of the global set, under Health and Education respectively.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The identification and aggregation methodology used to compute India's National Multidimensional Poverty Index is known as the
- (a)Alkire-Foster method
- (b)Sen-Shorrocks-Thon index
- (c)Foster-Greer-Thorbecke index
- (d)Lorenz curve method
Answera — The Alkire-Foster method supplies both steps: identifying a person as poor once the weighted deprivations of their household reach the cutoff, and aggregating the result as headcount ratio multiplied by average intensity.The Sen-Shorrocks-Thon and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke indices are income-poverty measures. The Lorenz curve depicts the distribution of income and does not identify deprived households.