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NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
India’s poor in the doldrums
The opening of the economy to multinationals has meant higher growth but a loss of state control and a shocking increase in rural poverty, writes Colin Todhunter

The 2014 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) by researchers at the University of Oxford covers 108 countries — 31 low-income countries, 67 middle-income countries and 10 high-income countries. These countries have a total population of 5.4 billion people, some 78 per cent of the world’s population.

The MPI assesses poverty at the individual level. If someone is deprived in a third or more of 10weighted indicators, the global index identifies them as “MPI poor,” and the extent — or intensity — of their poverty is measured by the number of deprivations they are experiencing. 

Those indicators are based on health, education and living standards and among other things include years of schooling, levels of nutrition, child mortality, flooring material (for instance, dirt) and access to water and electricity.

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