India, Feb. 27 -- Development economist and labour and employment expert Santosh Mehrotra on February 27 dismissed claims that India's poverty rate had shrunk to five per cent and that 250 million Indians had been lifted out of poverty in the past 11 years. He was speaking at the 2026 Anil Agarwal Dialogue organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in Nimli, Rajasthan.

Mehrotra was responding to questions from Richard Mahapatra, Managing Editor of Down To Earth.

"The government currently has neither a definition of extreme poverty nor a solid basis to indicate the actual poverty line. Today, the government claims that the poverty rate in India has shrunk to 5 per cent and that approximately 250 million people have come ou...