ABSTRACT
In assessing the effects of aid on India’s performance in reducing poverty, we face several problems.
(i) The performance has not been very good. Between the late 1950s and the mid1980s, the absolute number of Indians below a (fixed and harsh) poverty line has increased sharply. There has been at best a very small decline-masked by major fluctuations-in the proportion of the (growing) population below this line. There has been little or no easing in the intensity of their poverty. This is despite growth, rapid by historical standards, in GNP per person.
