Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R). Assertion (A) : Poverty line differs across time and countries. Reason (R) : The basic needs of people vary across regions and overtime. Select the correct answer from the code given below :
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- (b)(A) is true, but (R) is false
- (c)(A) is false, but (R) is true
- (d)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
Correct — D, Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). A poverty line is not a natural constant: it is the money value of a minimum bundle of goods and services that a society treats as indispensable. Assertion is true — India's own official line has been redrawn again and again (Alagh Task Force 1979, Lakdawala 1993, Tendulkar 2009, Rangarajan 2014), and lines differ sharply between countries because India works with an absolute consumption-basket line while the European Union works with a relative one (Eurostat's at-risk-of-poverty threshold is '60 % of the national median equivalised disposable income after social transfers'). Reason is also true — what counts as a 'basic need' genuinely varies by region and moves over time: calorie norms differ for rural and urban work, fuel and clothing needs differ with climate, and items such as sanitation, schooling and electricity have entered the basket that earlier lines ignored. And Reason is precisely the mechanism behind Assertion: because the basket of basic needs (and the prices of that basket) differ across space and shift across time, the money line drawn around it must differ too. So R explains A, which is exactly what option (d) states.
- (a)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A) — This is the trap option — it concedes both statements but denies the causal link. The link is real and direct: the poverty line is defined as the cost of a minimum-needs basket, so a change in what those needs are (or in what they cost) mechanically changes the line. R is not a separate coincidental truth; it is the reason A is true.
- (b)(A) is true, but (R) is false — R is not false. Basic-need norms are explicitly region- and time-specific in Indian practice — the 1979 Alagh Task Force itself used different calorie norms for rural (2,400 kcal/day) and urban (2,100 kcal/day) India, and later committees widened the basket beyond food to include education, health, clothing and transport.
- (c)(A) is false, but (R) is true — A is demonstrably true. Within India, official state poverty lines differ in the same year because price levels differ across States — UPSC asked exactly this in 2019. Across countries, an absolute line in a low-income economy and a relative 60 %-of-median-income line in the EU are not remotely the same number or even the same kind of measure.
A poverty line is a threshold of income or consumption expenditure below which a person is counted as poor. It is constructed, not observed: an authority first fixes a basket of 'minimum necessary' goods and services, then prices that basket. Two design choices follow. An ABSOLUTE line fixes the basket first and lets the money value follow prices — this is India's approach, historically anchored on calorie norms. A RELATIVE line fixes the money value as a fraction of the society's own income distribution — the EU's at-risk-of-poverty threshold is 60 % of national median equivalised disposable income. Either way the line moves with prices, with the composition of 'basic needs', and with the society doing the measuring.
Assertion-Reason items are decided in two steps, and candidates lose marks by skipping the second. Step 1: judge each statement independently. Here both survive. Step 2: ask whether R is the CAUSE of A, not merely another true sentence about the same topic. The tempting wrong answer is (a) — 'both true but unrelated' — because it feels cautious. Here caution is wrong: the definition of a poverty line is literally 'the cost of meeting basic needs', so varying basic needs is the very reason the line varies. A useful test: rewrite A as 'X happens BECAUSE R'. 'The poverty line differs across time and countries because basic needs vary across regions and over time' reads as a sound sentence — so (d) it is.
- India's first official poverty line came from the Y. K. Alagh Task Force (1979), anchored purely on calorie norms — 2,400 kcal/day rural and 2,100 kcal/day urban
- The Indian line has been revised repeatedly: Alagh (1979) → Lakdawala (1993, State-specific lines updated by price indices) → Tendulkar (2009, a broader consumption basket) → Rangarajan (2014, calorie-protein-fat norms plus a normative non-food component)
- Eurostat defines the EU 'at-risk-of-poverty threshold' as 60 % of the national median equivalised disposable income after social transfers — a relative line that shifts whenever national incomes shift
- Even inside India in a single year, official poverty lines are higher in some States than others because price levels differ across States
- Absolute poverty (a fixed basket) and relative poverty (a share of the median) are different concepts — a country can cut absolute poverty to near zero and still record relative poverty
- 1979 — Alagh Task Force: the first official line, priced purely off calorie norms (2,400 kcal rural / 2,100 kcal urban)
- 1993 — Lakdawala Committee: keeps the calorie anchor but gives State-specific lines updated by State price indices
- 2009 — Tendulkar Committee: drops the pure calorie anchor for a wider consumption basket including health and education
- 2014 — Rangarajan Committee: calorie, protein and fat norms plus a normative non-food component (rent, conveyance, education)
Same country, same concept, four different lines in thirty-five years — because the 'basic needs' basket kept being redefined. That is Reason (R) producing Assertion (A), which is why the key is (d).
- Picking (a) — 'both true but R is not the explanation' — out of caution, when the reason is in fact the definition of the term in the assertion
- Assuming a poverty line is a fixed international number; it is a constructed threshold that differs by country and by year
- Confusing an absolute poverty line (fixed basket) with a relative one (share of median income) — India uses the first, most rich countries the second
UPPSC likes the Assertion-Reason wrapper on a definitional economics concept, where both halves are true and the real test is the causal link; UPSC prefers the applied version — why State poverty lines differ, which committee recommended what, or which dimensions the MPI covers.
In a given year in India, official poverty lines are higher in some States than in others because
- (a) poverty rates vary from State to State
- (b) price levels vary from State to State
- (c) Gross State Product varies from State to State
- (d) quality of public distribution varies from State to State
Answer(b) price levels vary from State to State
The same idea one scale smaller — the line varies even across States of one country, and for exactly the reason UPPSC's Reason gives: the cost of the minimum-needs basket is not the same everywhere.
Persons below the poverty line in India are classified as such based on whether
- (a) they are entitled to a minimum prescribed food basket
- (b) they get work for a prescribed minimum number of days in a year
- (c) they belong to agricultural labourer household and the scheduled caste/tribe social group
- (d) their daily wages fall below the prescribed minimum wages
Answer(a) they are entitled to a minimum prescribed food basket
Establishes the definition the 2025 assertion rests on — the line is the cost of a prescribed minimum basket, so redefining the basket necessarily moves the line.
Which of the following Committees recommended a poverty line based on nutritional requirements exclusively ?
- (a) Alagh Committee
- (b) Lakdawala Committee
- (c) Tendulkar Committee
- (d) Rangarajan Committee
Answer(a) Alagh Committee
The concrete evidence for the 2025 assertion: the fact that a committee had to be appointed to fix a nutrition-based line — and that later committees replaced it — is the line 'differing across time'.
Which of the following is/are the type/s of poverty? (1) Absolute poverty (2) Relative poverty (3) Subjective poverty (4) Functional poverty Choose the correct answer using the code given below -
- (a) Only 3 and 4
- (b) Only 1, 2 and 3
- (c) Only 1 and 2
- (d) Only 1 and 4
Answer(b) Only 1, 2 and 3
The classification that explains the 'across countries' half of the assertion — absolute lines and relative lines are different instruments, so two countries measuring poverty are often not measuring the same thing.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which committee gave India its first official poverty line based exclusively on nutritional (calorie) requirements?
- (a)Lakdawala Committee
- (b)Y. K. Alagh Task Force
- (c)Tendulkar Committee
- (d)Rangarajan Committee
Answer(b) Y. K. Alagh Task Force — its 1979 report fixed 2,400 kcal/day for rural and 2,100 kcal/day for urban India.
- practice — not a real PYQ
A poverty line defined as 60 per cent of a country's median equivalised disposable income is an example of:
- (a)an absolute poverty line
- (b)a relative poverty line
- (c)a multidimensional poverty measure
- (d)a subjective poverty line
Answer(b) a relative poverty line — it is pegged to the country's own income distribution, so it rises as national incomes rise; this is the EU's at-risk-of-poverty threshold.