Anti-Poverty Measures

What immediately springs to mind whenever you encounter the term poverty? Is it the visual picture of a beggar on the roadside or perhaps the illustration of families striving to provide their kids sufficient food on the table? Or people who are in distress far afield in the most distant, disadvantaged regions of the country? According to the new analysis, over half of the planet's population makes less than $2 per day. About one of six people earned less than $1.25 each day. Visualize your family, your profession, your residence, your place of worship, and your society as the spokes of a wheel, and then contemplate what could follow if one of the spokes were damaged or absent. Kids who are poor experience it in a similar way.

Let's investigate poverty, how it exists in India, and the strategies that were undertaken to combat it in this section.

What is the meaning of poverty?

The reality is that depending on where you reside and what you are accustomed to, the notion of poverty may have multiple interpretations for you individually. Furthermore, poverty does not simply refer to a lack of income; it also refers to as dearth of choices, opportunities, and access to a wide range of commodities that many consider as necessities for existence. Lack of hope is the root of poverty. We cannot eradicate poverty with only one strategy since it has several facets. That stated, it is crucial to understand the causes and ways poverty persists in society rather than simply being able to explain what it looks like.

Definition

Let's be straightforward about what poverty is.

"Poverty is the position or circumstance in which an individual or community at large lacks the necessary financial capability to maintain the minimal well-being and living standard that is deemed acceptable by society."

Absolute Poverty and Relative Poverty

Knowing how poverty is primarily evaluated is crucial to comprehend poverty properly.
Here, the distinction between absolute and relative poverty is fundamental.
Both proposals employ the notions of the poverty threshold, also known as the poverty line, which is the cut-off point of earned family income.
Any individual who earns less than this quantity is regarded as being in poverty and unable to adequately provide for their fundamental necessities.
The fundamental variation between these two notions is the data needed to establish the poverty threshold.
Absolute Poverty: The fixed poverty threshold, which remains constant even during an economic expansion, is known as the absolute poverty
- It matches all households to a predetermined income level and differs from nation to nation.
- Let's consider a situation to comprehend this effectively.
- Consider that in India, 100 rupees represent the constant cut-off level for the minimal quality of life.
- Someone whose salary is below this threshold of 100 rupees would be deemed living in poverty.
- Anyone who can make more than 100 rupees daily is regarded as being over the poverty line.
- It is comparable to the minimum wage needed to sustain the essentials of life.
The relative poverty line, in contrast, is calculated by a standard of living or average household income.
- The threshold is specified as a portion of this standard.
- For example, a salary that is 50% below the national average for household income.
- A nice illustration would be someone who rides a bicycle, but all of his neighbors have scooters; we may classify this as relative poverty.
- Therefore, when we talk about relative poverty, we are referring to how it stands compared to something else, the local population or the neighborhood.
- Since averages vary from country to country, this is regarded as relative.
Different forms of poverty exist, including situational, generational, and multidimensional poverty.

Calculating Poverty

Choosing the cut-off point for expenditures or earnings is necessary to determine poverty.
These earnings are required to meet basic demands.
People who fall below this line are considered below the poverty line (BPL).
The poverty ratio is the proportion of the population below the poverty line.
In India, the impoverished are found using both of these techniques.
Why is it necessary to identify the impoverished in the first place?
- The government must identify the nations impoverished to determine investments that will be made in the form of anti-poverty programs.

Reasons for poverty in India

The European colonization represents one of India's established root causes of poverty.
- We were neglected when the British Government drifted away from India because British rule never really was concerned about the populace.
- In both agriculture and industry, there was widespread dismal production.
- At this time, no one was working.
- As a result, people's poverty persisted.
India's population is expanding rapidly, and eventually, it will surpass China in size.
- With such a significant population, there are constantly additional mouths to feed.
- The Government should guarantee that all its citizens have access to fundamental infrastructure and services, including food, water, apparel, and housing.
- People become poor when they are lacking in all of these.
Joblessness: There are fewer resources available because of the expanding population.
- People who do not acquire enough resources thus continue to live in poverty.
Widespread discrepancies in income and wealth: Because wealth and earnings are not equitably distributed across the population, the rich are getting wealthier, and the poor tend to get poorer over time.
Debt: The vast majority of individuals in India are employed in agriculture.
- The majority of people-nearly two-thirds-reside in villages.
- They remain reliant on borrowing from the moneylender, who asks them for a very high-interest rate because they lack sufficient land and suitable labour to produce.
- They cannot repay this debt; thus, the pattern repeats and affects the subsequent generation.

Identification of the poor in India

The obligation for categorizing the impoverished in India falls on the state governments rather than the national Government.
The under-poverty line census information is used to identify the poor.
The shorthand for the Socio-Economic-Caste Census is SECC.
According to reports, the SECC, or survey, happened in 2011.
Although the survey has addressed many accusations that it discriminates against caste when measuring poverty, it is not accessible to the general population in urban areas.
Using the statistics from this census, the authorities have launched several anti-poverty initiatives, including Housing for All by 2022, MGNREGA, SarvaSiksha Abhiyan, etc.

We'll discuss some of these measurements in additional detail in the following section.

Anti-poverty measures

1) MGNREGA

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is commonly known as MGNREGA.
According to regulation, a hundred days of employment on regional infrastructure works must be promised to any adult who applies for employment in rural areas within fifteen days following enrolment.
Unemployment benefits must be awarded if the job is not offered.
The MGNREGA program was formerly termed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
However, it was given the new title Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act after April 2008.
In summary, it is an Indian government-funded social welfare program.
In India, it gives impoverished labourers a job and a means of subsistence.
Since the Government has delegated the enforcement of this program to the Gram Panchayats, individuals must first enlist voluntarily with the Gram Panchayats to qualify for employment under this program.
Initially, the minimum salary was hundred rupees each day.
- But after a while, the Government amended it to consider specific labour laws.
- Today's minimum wages are determined by the states and fluctuate from one state to the next.
- In Bihar, it is 163 rupees, but in Kerala, it is 500.
Tree planting, repairing and building dams and reservoirs, establishing agricultural ponds, drilling soak basins, and constructing washrooms, Nursery schools, roadways, and burial grounds are just a few of the projects that have been completed under the MGNREGA program.
Under this program, all of these types of public labour are covered.

How far has the MGNREGA scheme worked in India?

The MGNREGA initiatives have drastically decreased India's available funds.
- The system's intended beneficiaries are not getting enough benefits from the scheme.
- Innumerable anomalies prevent the resources from reaching their intended recipients during the transfer of money from the federal Government to the local authorities.
This plan is frequently employed as a voting bank method.
Other lower-income group-focused initiatives, including the Jan Dhan Yojana, Atal Pension Yojanas, Skill India Program, Garib Kalyan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, and numerous other programs exist to eliminate this.

Measures are taken to check the irregularities in MGNREGA

CA&G Social Audit
Complaint Handling techniques
Comprehensive National Economic Fund Management
Federal and state quality inspection

2) Indira Awas Yojana

The former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi announced the Indira Awas Yojana in 1985.
The project's intended goal was to provide accommodation for individuals of Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes, emancipated village contractual employees, and those who lived below the poverty line irrespective of their SC/ST status.
The IAY, however, commenced operations as a stand-alone program in 1966.
The assistance program awarded 60% of the subsidized housing to SC/ST BPL cardholders, and the remaining 40% went to non-SC/ST cardholders.
Additionally, applicants from the minor community and those with mental and physical impairments received 45% and 15% of the funds from the abovementioned categories.
The essential thing to note here is that the beneficiary listing for the Indira Awas Yojana was generated using the BPL database that the relevant Gram Sabha had validated.
The federal and state governments helped contribute 75:25 to the IAY program's financing.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi reconstituted the Indira Gandhi Awas Yojana as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) -it modified the IAY characteristics, operational capabilities, and many other components in April 2016.
The target of this housing project, endorsed by the Indian government, is to construct affordable homes for everyone.
By 2022, all individuals will have access to accommodation following this initiative.
The housing scheme also offers lower borrowing costs on housing loans and pucca homes for those living in kutcha dwellings.

3) Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)

The proposal became effective on April 1st, 1999.
The government established the program after evaluating and reconstitution the formerly six independent programs, IRDP, TRYSEM, DWCRA, MSW, and SITRA.
The policy's mission is to lift the assisted Swarozgaris out of distress by offering them resources that may bring in revenue via bank lending and loan programs. Or, to rephrase it another way, boost BPL households' earnings to at least 2,000 per month to elevate them out of poverty.
It delivers incentives, grants, credit, and skills for such advancement.
Objectives:
- Concentrating strategy for reducing poverty by establishing a significant number of micro-businesses in the nation's remote regions
- Mitigating potential problems that might arise from the proliferation of programs
- The growing benefit of group financing
A 75:25 split between the federal and state governments finances the program.
How does this strategy perform?
- The overarching intention of the SHG is to support people in combating poverty and generating a considerable source of earnings through collaborative efforts.
- Individuals who are below the poverty level are split into various self-help organizations under this scheme.
- Public funds and microloans from banks support these groups.
- These groups will be structured according to the individuals' capabilities, skillsets, and commitment to the project.
- Every participant of the SHG will have a role in accomplishing the group's goal because of how it is set up.

4) National Food Security Mission (NFSM)

The National Food Security Mission was outlined in 2007-2008 to strengthen productivity and broaden the acreage under which rice, wheat, and pulses were cultivated to enhance their production.
All of these were planned to achieve through:
- Repairing soil structure and fertility:Even though the green revolution boosted rice and wheat harvest on a relatively small portion of land, it also had the unintended consequence of diminishing soil health due to the extensive utilization of fertilizers and pesticides. It is fundamental to replenish soil fertility to combat this.
- Increasing farm-level savings and offering new job opportunities. We are aware that one industry that has disguised unemployment is agriculture.
- From 2014 to 2015, NFSM also covered coarse grains.
Presently, NFSM is employed in predefined zones spanning 28 states and two union territories, covering Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

What is accomplished using NFSM?

Encouragement is being extended to the farmer to facilitate demonstrations on the farming pattern and groupings of enhanced practice demonstrations.
High-yielding seed variants, agricultural implements, resource-saving equipment, and appropriate water irrigation techniques are all encompassed under this mandate.
Farmers undergo training in nutrient management, crop protection, and harvesting.
To maximize the farmer's profitability, a primary processing unit and small storage containers will be added in 2020-2021, following regional regulations.
The mission supplemented one hundred ten lakh hectares of agricultural land with micronutrients and biofertilizers.

By guaranteeing food security, fewer individuals can go without eating, and as a result, this program helps to reduce poverty.

5) Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

With a single touch, we can all make the payment, reserve a cinema ticket, or transfer the money to anyone.
- Given that we all have bank accounts; we are competent in accomplishing this.
- Another perk of maintaining a bank account is that we can borrow money from it, use credit on it, and earn interest while maintaining our funds there.
- These are just a few bonuses of possessing a bank account.
- Regrettably, the less privileged elements of society and inhabitants of isolated and rural parts of the nation are unaware of the advantages of owning a bank account.
This was the rationale for implementing the Pradhan Mantri Jan and Dhan Yojana, a system designed to dispense bank accounts to individuals of the poorest strata of society.
This program, which operates under the Department of Finance, was inaugurated in 2014.
The only individuals who meet the standard as beneficiaries under this program are those who do not currently possess a bank account and are at least 10 years old.
By mandating that the minimum amount in the account be retained at zero, the policy seeks to encourage growth and create accessible banking services.
Zero balance is permitted because hefty minimal deposits are unattainable by most individuals.
The program's target is financial inclusion.
Important aspects:
- National financial inclusion agenda
- Banking includes with no balance
- Up to 30,000 rupees insurance coverage is claimable upon the beneficiary's demise.
- A 10,000-rupee overdraft option is offered (overdraft is basically like credit)
- Direct Benefit Deposit, where no intermediary is engaged, credits the subsidies or benefits instantly to the beneficiaries' bank accounts.
- Dhan Darshak, Jan, to connect the government and the general public for financial inclusion, an app is also launched, from which the beneficiaries can learn the location of the closest bank.
- Studies indicate that as of December 2021, this campaign has accumulated up to 44 crore users since 2014.

6) Pradhan Mantri Ujjwal Yojana

In urban and suburban communities, LPG-the shorthand for liquefied petroleum gas-is employed more frequently.
- Rural communities, on the contrary hand, retain to rely on fossil-fuel-based energy for heating and cooking.
- Burning wood and other fossil fuels discharge gasses that are very detrimental to health.
- Following an investigation, cooking over an open flame is equivalent to puffing 400 cigarettes in one hour.
- The smoke that is expelled is damaging as a result.
The Indian government created the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwal Yojana as its cornerstone initiative to tackle this problem.
The program is being applied all around the nation.
The PMUJ 1.0 segment of the operation began in May 2016 and was scheduled to run through March 2020.
The program was initially implemented in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.
This project was introduced by the Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
The program's target was to connect all low-income families to LPG.
However, PMUY 2.0, the second stage, was re-launched in 2021.
This program was initially implemented in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh.
The target has been widened in the 2.0 plan to deliver the major benefits to the migrants, who now only need to present a self-declared statement in place of the extensive documentation required in the 1.0 phase to obtain an LPG connection
Goals:
- To strengthen female empowerment and safeguard their health because they are more immediately affected by the toxic gases emitted in the kitchen.
- to supply wholesome cooking energy
- To avoid health consequences brought on by the use of fossil fuels.
Features:
- The government offers monetary support to procure LPG at discounted rates.
- For a 14.2 kg cylinder, it offers 1600 rupees, and for a 5 kg cylinder, it offers 1150 rupees.
- Free initial LPG restock, and burner are also furnished (a feature of 2.0)
- Give it up, movement.
Beneficiaries:
- Women from low-income households who are deprived of access to LPG.
- A registry of recipients was later made public, and it included: SC/ST families receiving PMAY-G incentives, forest inhabitants, Tea, former tea gardens, tribes, and the poorest segments.
- People from priority states, such as the North-eastern and hilly regions, were among the 2.0 beneficiaries.

7) National Rural Livelihood Mission

Since there is a dearth of technology, education, and employment prospects in rural places, people may be forced to live in poverty.
The government created this mission to improve rural residents' livelihood circumstances to combat this.
Having access to the necessities of daily existence is what livelihood means.
It operates as an umbrella scheme for numerous other schemes.
The Ajeevika Rural Livelihood Mission was established as a modification of the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana program and the DeenDayalAntyodaya Yojana, or National Livelihood Mission, is the new name for this program.
The initiative debuted in June 2011.
The Ministry of Rural Development is authorized for the activities under this scheme.
It is a federally funded initiative, and the World Bank is collaborating.
The goal of the scheme is to end rural poverty.
The target is to outreach the last community in 14 years.
Important characteristics of the scheme:
- At least one woman from a poor home shall be brought into self-help groups for widespread social mobilization. Social mobilization entails imparting knowledge to a crowd. This aims at generating income to build a livelihood.
- The weaker groups in society would be the main emphasis.
- Participatory poor recognition.
- Community resources and funds.
- To ensure monetary participation.
- Ability to earn a living

8) Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY)

Nirmala Sitharaman, India's Finance Minister, unveiled this program as part of a financial assistance package for the 80 crore individuals affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
During the three months of the epidemic, it was decided to provide 80 crore individuals 5 kg of either rice or wheat and 1 kg of their chosen legumes.
The plan was designed to provide migrant workers and the poor in both urban and rural areas with quick assistance.
There should be no hunger was the main agenda behind the program.
It was a 1.7 lakh crore rupee package.
It was unveiled under the Department of Finance.
The program was in effect from December 16, 2016, until March 31, 2017.
Goals:
- To give people the chance to confidentially confess unexplained riches and black money to escape prosecution after paying a fine of 50% of the unreported income.
- A further 25% of the unreported income is put into the program, which allows for a four-year, interest-free reimbursement.
Recent alterations
- The PMGKY program announced a Rs. 1.70 billion relief packages for the underprivileged to aid them in the fight against the Covid-19 outbreak.
- An insurance policy covered health personnel combating Covid-19 with a 50-lakh rupee per staff limit.
- Safai Karmacharis, nurses, paramedics, ward boys, doctors, and other health professionals, ASHA employees are covered.
- States and all government hospitals, wellness centres, and health care facilities were also covered
- M. Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana under the National Food Security Act, free rice and wheat were distributed to 80 crore people to provide adequate protein quality.
- Farmers also profited from this program: Under the PM KISAN Yojana, they received 2000 rupees.
- During the Covid-19 pandemic, 20 crore women with Jan Dhan accounts received 500 rupees per month for three months.
- Free LPG cylinders were distributed to 8 crore needy homes.
- The government contributed 24% of the monthly income for those who made less than 15,000 rupees into their PF accounts.
- From April 1, 2020, MGNREGA pay rose by 20 rupees.
- All 3.5 crore registered workers who worked in the building and construction industries were to receive benefits.
- The government increased the collateral-free loans available to self-help women's organizations from 10 lakh rupees to 20 lakh rupees.

9) Solar Chakra Mission

Inaugurated in June 2018, the solar chakra initiative is a Department of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) endeavour.
In Bihar's Nawada region, Khanwa village saw the installation of a solar chakra pilot phase in 2016.
Following the pilot program's success, the Indian government has granted the go-ahead to establish 50 of these groups with a 550-crore expenditure for 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The solar chakra initiative is a business-driven venture that advocates for establishing Solar Chakra Clusters comprising 200 to 2042 benefactors who are expert spinners, weavers, tailors, and other artisans.
The initiative is expected to create close to one lakh direct employment opportunities in the designated clusters.
A cumulative price of 9.60 crore rupees would be given to a single cluster in the form of interest subsidies for capital investments, capital subsidies for individual and Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV), and training programs.
Solar energy, a form of renewable energy, will be employed to power these solar chakras.
Being an environmentally responsible program will contribute to expanding the green economy.
Additionally, it will create a significant amount of work for the artists.
Scheme Objectives:
- To promote inclusive growth by generating jobs, particularly for women and young people, and to advance rural regions through solar chakra communities significantly.
- To strengthen the rural economy and stop the flow of people from villages to metropolitan areas.
- Should rely on creative, low-cost technologies and methods for survival.

10) National Nutrition Mission (Poshan Abhiyan)

India's malnutrition problem is intricate and multifaceted.
The following are the reasons for this:
- Disparity and gender imbalance
- Poverty
- Insufficientdietary intake
- Inequitable food access
- Improper motherly, infant, and child nutrition and nurturing methods
- Bad sanitary and environmental conditions, and limited access to high-quality health, education, and social care services are its main causes.
To combat this, the Prime Minister announced the National Nutrition Campaign (Poshan Abhiyan) on March 8, 2018, International Women's Day, in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.
The Prime Ministers' Overreaching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition, or POSHAN Abhiyan, draws the nation's spotlight on the issue of malnutrition and takes a missionary approach to solve it.
A three-year allocation of 9046 crore rupees has been structured for the National Nutrition Mission (NNM), which will begin in 2017-18.
The Abhiyan intends to eliminate anaemia, retardation, and undernourishment in young children, women, and adolescent girls.
The objective of ensuring the convergence of numerous nutrition-related strategies is to lower the degree of undernourishment and other aligned issues.
Additionally, it intends to lower the infant's birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3%, and 2% per year.
The mission's objective is to reduce retardation among children aged 0 to 6 from 38.4% to 25% by 2022.
Features:
- It uses the current organizational arrangements of line ministries and includes evaluating and monitoring the effectiveness of these plans.
- It is supported by the National Nutrition Strategy, developed by the NITI Aayog, to make India malnutrition-free by 2022.
- From 2017-18 through 2019-20, there will be three stages of implementation.
- 50% of the total budget comes from the World Bank or the other multilateral development banks, and the Centre's endowment sponsors the rest 50%.
It contains:
- Robust consolidation technique
- Real-time surveillance system powered by ICT
- Rewarding States and UTs for achieving their goals
- Offering incentives for Anganwadi employees to use IT-related technologies
- Removing the register that AWWs employ
- Adopting child height measurement at Anganwadi centers (AWCs)
- The Social Audit
- Construction of nutrition resource centers
- Additionally, it focuses on getting the general public involved in Jan Andolan's many nutrition-related activities.
Implementation:
- Convergence Action Pan and close-to-the-ground monitoring would be the foundation of the implementation plan.
- The Technical Support Unit, a NITI Aayog, is in charge of executing the POSHAN Abhiyan.
Way Forward:
- Improvements must be made in Complementary feeding
- Focusing on women and girls through training them from a young age, preventing premature marriage and childbearing, and enhancing care for expectant mothers and postpartum patients.
- Water, sanitation, soapy handwashing, and properly disposing children's feces are only a few efficient interventions.
- Increase the scale of the scenarios that highlight the health-sector initiatives to reduce anemia in women of reproductive age.

11) PM SVANidhi (PM Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi)

The endeavour commenced on June 1, 2020.
Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), an initiative to guarantee street sellers cheap loans, has been announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
The program aims to support hawkers suffering from Covid-19 difficulty by assisting with operational resources.
India is estimated to have between 50 and 60 lakh street vendors, with the majority centered in urban areas.
A street vendor is a person without a fixed place of business.
The sellers are eligible for a working capital loan of up to 10,000 rupees, repaid over a year in equal monthly payments.
The loans would be disbursed without security.
People vending until March 24, 2020, are entitled to this program's benefits.
A 7% yearly interest rate will be applied to loans reimbursed early or on time, and it will be deposited to recipients' bank accounts by direct benefit transfer every six months.
The program is active through March 2022.
The SVANidhi scheme intends to make it easier to:
- Enticing the loan's regular repayment.
- Digital transactions are rewarded.
The privileges are available to all street sellers who started their businesses on or before March 24, 2020.
The Centre has set aside a 500-million-rupee stimulus package for this program, which was established in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, for approximately 50 lakh street sellers.
Specifications of the plan:
- Up to 10,000 rupees in minimum working capital.
- Urban local governments will be crucial to the program's implementation.
- The program will last through March 2022.

How well has India combatted poverty despite all these initiatives?

Given that we are uncertain of how to quantify it and the outcomes, poverty is a significant problem in India yet is frequently debated in an unstructured manner.
The World Bank recently published its most comprehensive assessment of world poverty, revealing a historical turnaround in reducing poverty.
- According to the World Bank, poverty dropped relatively fast for almost three decades until 2015.
- Since 2015, however, that pace has stalled, and the Covid-19 epidemic and the Ukraine war have caused a turnaround.
- The percentage of people living in poverty and inequality is increasing worldwide.
Even though India was already experiencing poverty, the recent Covid-19 outbreak and Russia-Ukraine war have made matters worse for the country's citizens.
According to the World Bank, India has the poorest people in the world. In other words, India is the nation with the most poverty.
However, our very own neighbor, China, is helping people escape poverty by making some radical transformations.
The World Bank states two noteworthy items.
- First, it claims that these downturns make the 2030 global target of ending severe poverty look improbable.
- Second, it claims that 56 million individuals in India and approximately 17 million people worldwide were made poorer in 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
According to this statistic, 8 out of 10 poor people worldwide are from India.

Extreme Poverty: What Is It?

The World Bank claims that consumption level is the cornerstone for quantifying poverty. The poverty line is another name for this.
The World Bank has established a $2.15 per person per day threshold as the current measure of poverty.
The purchasing power parity is the foundation for this metric. This is equivalent to 170 rupees in Indian currency.
Extreme poverty in India is defined as having a daily expenditure of fewer than 46 rupees.
India's issues: Three main issues:
- Widespread joblessness
- Expanding disparities
- Increased poverty
What data can we use to analyze?
- The figures are exactly what one should expect, given that India accounts for a substantial portion of the world is poor.
- There are essentially two causes for this:
  - India is the second-most populous country in the world after China.
  - China did not experience as much damage from COVID-19 in 2020 as India did.
  - According to the RBI, the Indian economy shrank by 6.6% in 2020, whereas the global economy shrank by 3.1%, and China's economy expanded.
  - The stimulus seemed to be quite huge.
  - The combined credit and liquidity boost in 2020 accounted for 6.7% of GDP.
  - This made deflation worse.