Exclusive Growth

For a long time, the poverty/inequality debate in India was mired in methodological issues concerning the comparability of the large sample NSS data of 1999-2000 with that of 1993-94.4 Thus, the debate on the effects of post-1991 liberalization on poverty and/or inequality took place in the complete absence of any reliable data, notwithstanding attempts to make NSS 1999-2000 comparable with NSS 1993-94. This changed with the availability of the NSS 2004-05 (61st round). In this paper, we will avoid any comparisons that involve NSS 1999-2000. Instead, the comparisons will be between NSS 1993-94 and NSS 2004-05, the earlier NSS large sample having been conducted in 1987-88.