In a given year in India, official poverty lines are higher in some States than in others because
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Answer: B. Poverty lines are set as the money needed to buy a basic consumption basket. Since prices of goods differ across States, the same basket costs more in some States, so their poverty lines are higher.
Watch for: Option A sounds logical but confuses cause with effect.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Wrong because poverty rates are the result calculated from the line, not the reason it differs.
- C. Wrong because State output does not set the cost of the basic basket.
- D. Wrong because PDS quality is not used to fix the poverty line.
Source to check: Planning Commission, Report of the Expert Group to Review the Methodology for Estimation of Poverty (Tendulkar Committee, 2009); NCERT Class 9 Economics, Chapter 3 'Poverty as a Challenge'
Answer from the official UPSC key. Written and fact-checked by AI against the official key. Spotted a mistake? Report it.