Union minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday claimed that 13 crore Indians have come out of poverty in five years, citing data from the NITI Aayog.

At an event of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in New Delhi, Goyal said that the Indian economy has shown tremendous resilience. He claimed that the economy has been characterised by “low inflation, high rate of growth, significant stability of our Indian currency, inclusive growth with nearly 13 crore people coming out of poverty in five years span as per the NITI Aayog report”.

The minister said that the rapid growth of the middle class has also led to greater demand for goods and services.

Goyal was referring to a NITI Aayog report, titled “National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023” that was released earlier this year. The report said that 13.5 crore Indians moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-’16 and 2019-’21.

According to the NITI Aayog, the share of the “multidimensionally poor” population in India fell from 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-’21.

However, official estimates on the extent of poverty in India were last released in 2011. At that time, there were an estimated 269 poor people in India, which accounted for 21.9% of the population. These estimates were based on data from the Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys of the National Statistical Office.

Officially, an individual who lives on Rs 1,000 or less per month in cities and Rs 816 or less in villages, at 2011-’12 prices is poor, per the poverty line determined by a committee headed by economist Suresh Tendulkar.

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