India, Nov. 6 -- The World Bank estimates that 496 million people moved out of poverty between 2011 and 2023.

Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal account for about 57 per cent of India's poor.

Millions continue to face inadequate education, drinking water and sanitation, while wage inequality remains stark.

How poor is India? Officially, India has not attempted to answer this question since 2011. But since then, there have been debates over this question. And the debates mostly erupt when somebody somewhere makes an estimate of India's poverty level.

Most of time, these debates are not over poverty in India but just polarised contests and counters on poverty data. Poverty in India has just become some figures conjured by some economists in a...