Executive summary 1
1. The Empowerment Line: A new measure of poverty in India 29
2. What keeps India poor 45
3. Understanding the Empowerment Gap 65
4. Access to basic services: The patterns of deprivation 83
5. Reforms and governance to move India from poverty
to empowerment 101
6. Revitalising India’s job creation engine 123
7. Raising productivity on India’s farms 151
8. Increasing public spending on basic services 173
9. Improving the effectiveness of basic service delivery 181
10. The way forward 203
Appendix: Technical notes 209
Appendix A: Estimating the Empowerment Line 209
Appendix B: Estimating the value of public spending on basic
services reaching the people 213
Appendix C: Calculating Access Deprivation Scores and
determining district archetypes 216
Appendix D: Constructing scenarios 220
Appendix E: Framework for strengthening accountabilities 224
Appendix F: Major government programmes 225
Bibliography 227