MAINS Current Affairs includes India’s Poverty Decline Is Among the Fastest Globally & Cloud Ecosystem in India

Economy

1. India’s Poverty Decline Is Among the Fastest Globally

Context: According to the World Bank report titled India Poverty and Equity Brief: October 2026, India has recorded one of the fastest declines in poverty globally.

• The report highlights significant improvements in income-based poverty indicators, supported by employment expansion, greater participation of women in paid work, social protection measures and improved access to essential services.

India’s Progress in Poverty Reduction

Decline in extreme poverty

• The proportion of India’s population living below the international extreme poverty line of $3 per person per day, measured in 2021 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), declined substantially.
• 2011:1% of the population lived below this poverty threshold.
• 2023: The proportion declined to 2.6%.

Reduction in poverty under the Lower Middle-Income Country threshold

• The poverty rate measured against the Lower Middle-Income Country poverty line of $4.20 per person per day declined from 7% in 2011 to 16.1% in 2023.
• This reduction is estimated to have lifted approximately 496 million people out of poverty.

Future poverty projections

• According to the report, poverty measured against the $4.20-per-day threshold is expected to decline further:
• 2026:2%.
• 2028:1%.

What Is a Poverty Line?

• A poverty line is a threshold level of income or consumption used to determine whether an individual or household is considered poor.
• People living below this threshold are considered unable to afford basic necessities, including:

Importance of the poverty line

• The poverty line serves two important purposes:

1. Measuring poverty: It helps governments assess the extent and distribution of poverty within the population and formulate suitable welfare policies.
2. Evaluating policy effectiveness: It helps determine whether government policies and welfare interventions have successfully reduced poverty and improved people’s living conditions over time.

Key Drivers of Poverty Reduction in India

Expansion of employment

• Employment increased by approximately 134 million people between 2017 and 2023.
• This increase was nearly twice the growth in the working-age population.
• Greater employment opportunities have contributed to higher household earnings and improved economic conditions.

Greater participation of women in paid employment

• Increased participation of rural women in paid work has strengthened household incomes.
• It has also increased the number of earning members within families.
• This has contributed to improved financial security and reduced household vulnerability.

Expansion of social protection

• Food subsidies and other government transfers have supported economically vulnerable households.
• These interventions have helped protect families against economic shocks.
• They have also supported household consumption levels and reduced the risk of falling into poverty.

Improved access to essential facilities

• Greater access to basic services and infrastructure has helped reduce non-monetary deprivation.
• Important areas include:
• Drinking water.
• Improved access to these facilities has contributed to better living conditions and overall well-being.

Major Government Initiatives Supporting Poverty Reduction

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

• The scheme aims to provide industry-relevant skill training to young people.
• It seeks to improve employability and create better employment opportunities.
• Skill development can help workers access more productive livelihood opportunities.

National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013

• The Act provides a legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains for approximately 67% of India’s population.
• Its coverage includes:
• 75% of the rural population.
• 50% of the urban population.
• It seeks to strengthen food security and protect vulnerable households from food-related deprivation.

Ayushman Bharat Scheme

• The scheme provides health insurance coverage of up to ₹5 lakh per family per year to eligible beneficiaries.
• It aims to protect households from the financial burden of expensive medical treatment.
• It helps reduce the risk of healthcare expenditure pushing families into poverty.

Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009

• The Act provides for free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14 years.
• It seeks to improve access to education and promote equal educational opportunities.
• Education can contribute to long-term poverty reduction by improving human capital and employment prospects.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM)

• The scheme aims to reduce rural poverty by enabling poor households to access sustainable livelihood opportunities.
• It promotes:
• Gainful self-employment.
• Skilled wage employment.
• It seeks to improve income-generating capacity and strengthen the economic independence of rural households.

Persistent Challenges Despite Poverty Reduction

• Despite the significant decline in poverty, several structural and economic challenges continue to affect inclusive development.

Regional concentration of poverty

• Poverty is increasingly concentrated in particular geographical regions.
• States forming a contiguous belt from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal account for approximately 57% of India’s poor population.
• This highlights persistent regional inequalities and uneven development.

Widening wage disparities

• In 2023, median earnings among the top 10% of workers were approximately 13 times higher than those of the bottom 10%.
• This indicates that growth in employment has not necessarily resulted in equitable income distribution.
• Wage inequality continues to affect the ability of vulnerable workers to improve their living standards.

Rising youth unemployment

• The youth unemployment rate increased from 6% to 15.9% between the first quarters of FY2026 and FY2027.
• This indicates continuing difficulties in providing adequate employment opportunities for young people.

Prevalence of low-productivity employment

• A significant share of employment growth has been concentrated in relatively low-productivity activities.
• Such employment may not generate sufficient improvements in household earnings.
• Consequently, the quality and productivity of employment remain important concerns alongside employment generation.

Way Forward

Strengthen labour-intensive sectors

• India should expand labour-intensive sectors capable of generating productive and sustainable livelihood opportunities.
• Important sectors include:
• Food processing.
• Strengthening these sectors can create employment opportunities for a wider section of the workforce.

Address structural inequalities

• Reduce regional disparities through targeted development interventions.
• Prioritise investments in infrastructure, human capital and industrial development in regions where poverty remains concentrated.
• Promote more balanced regional economic growth.

Improve poverty measurement and policy targeting

• Strengthen regular household consumption surveys.
• Expand multidimensional poverty assessments to identify different forms of deprivation.
• Use reliable and updated data to identify emerging vulnerabilities.
• Improve the targeting and effectiveness of poverty-alleviation programmes.

Conclusion

India’s substantial decline in poverty reflects improvements in employment, women’s economic participation, social protection and access to essential services. However, persistent regional disparities, wage inequality, youth unemployment and low-productivity employment indicate that poverty reduction must be accompanied by inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

The focus should therefore shift from poverty reduction alone towards generating productive employment, improving income distribution and ensuring equitable access to opportunities across regions and social groups.

Science and Technology

2. Cloud Ecosystem in India

Context: The rapid expansion of digital adoption in India is increasing the demand for reliable data infrastructure. Cloud computing has therefore become an important component of India’s digital ecosystem, enabling the storage, processing and delivery of digital services.

What is Cloud Computing?

• Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing resources, such as data storage, servers, software and processing capabilities, over the internet.
• Instead of purchasing and maintaining their own physical servers, organisations can access computing resources whenever required.
• Example: Google Drive allows users to store documents online and access them from multiple devices.

Physical infrastructure behind cloud computing

• Cloud computing depends on physical infrastructure, particularly data centres.
• Data centres: Facilities that house servers, storage systems and networking equipment required to operate cloud services.
• Server rooms: Dedicated spaces containing computers that store data and run digital services.
• Thus, although cloud services are accessed through the internet, they rely on physical infrastructure for their functioning.

Types of Cloud Models

Cloud computing can be classified into three major deployment models:

Public Cloud

• A public cloud uses infrastructure owned and operated by a third-party service provider.
• The infrastructure is shared among multiple customers.
• Example: A business or video-streaming company can serve millions of users through shared cloud servers.

Private Cloud

• A private cloud is dedicated to a single organisation.
• It provides greater organisational control over infrastructure and security arrangements.
• Example: A State Treasury Department may use a private cloud to store sensitive payment and financial records.

Hybrid Cloud

• A hybrid cloud combines public and private cloud environments.
• It allows organisations to use public cloud infrastructure for certain services while retaining sensitive information in private environments.
• Example: A municipal corporation may operate its property-tax payment portal on a public cloud while storing citizens’ records on a private cloud.

Types of Cloud Services

Cloud computing services are broadly classified into the following categories:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

• IaaS allows users to rent computing infrastructure such as virtual servers, storage and networks instead of purchasing physical equipment.
• It provides flexibility to increase or decrease computing resources according to demand.
• Example: An online retailer can lease cloud servers to host its website and expand computing capacity during festive sales when website traffic increases.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

• PaaS provides developers with tools and platforms to build, test and deploy applications.
• Developers can focus on application development without managing the underlying infrastructure.
• Example: A team developing a mobile banking application can use a cloud platform to build and test its software.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

• SaaS delivers ready-to-use software applications over the internet.
• The service provider manages software updates, maintenance and underlying infrastructure.
• Example: Zoom, which provides video-conferencing services over the internet.

Serverless Computing

• Serverless computing enables developers to execute specific tasks without directly managing servers.
• The cloud provider manages the underlying infrastructure and allocates computing resources whenever required.
• Example: An online shopping platform can automatically process an order when a customer completes a purchase.

Why Does India Need More Cloud Infrastructure?

Rapid expansion of digital activities

• India’s growing digital economy is generating enormous volumes of information that need to be stored, processed and protected.
• According to the figures provided:
• Internet subscribers: 1,092.79 million in March 2026.
• Average wireless data consumption:51 GB per subscriber per month.
• Total wireless data usage: 285,376 petabytes during 2025–26.
• These developments are increasing the demand for scalable and reliable digital infrastructure.

Flexible computing capacity

• Cloud infrastructure allows organisations to expand or reduce their computing resources according to changing requirements.
• It helps organisations manage sudden increases in digital traffic.
• It reduces the need to maintain large amounts of computing infrastructure throughout the year.
• Example: An online examination portal can increase its computing resources during registration periods and reduce them once demand declines.

Expansion of cloud service providers

• As of September 2026, India had empanelled 30 cloud service providers.
• Indian cloud service providers include:
• Jio Platforms.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
• Yotta Data Services.
• International cloud service providers include:
• Google Cloud India.
• Oracle India.
• Microsoft Corporation India.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) India.

Data centres as a pillar of India’s cloud ecosystem

• Data centres provide the physical infrastructure required to operate cloud services by housing servers, storage systems and networking equipment.
• India’s data centre capacity reached 57 GW as of August 2026.
• It is projected to increase to nearly 8 GW by 2030.
• The expansion of data centres is therefore an important factor in strengthening India’s domestic cloud infrastructure.

What is MeghRaj?

• MeghRaj is the Government of India’s cloud ecosystem, launched in 2014 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Objectives

• Accelerate the adoption of e-governance services.
• Optimise public expenditure on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
• Provide cloud infrastructure for government departments and digital services.

MeghRaj 2.0

• MeghRaj 2.0 represents the second-generation iteration of India’s National Cloud Computing Initiative.
• It reflects the continued development of the government’s cloud ecosystem.

Major Initiatives Taken by India

Cloud Selection Framework, 2026

• In March 2026, MeitY issued a Cloud Selection Framework.
• It provides structured guidance to Ministries and Departments for selecting appropriate cloud infrastructure.
• The selection process considers the sensitivity and criticality of data.

FutureSkills PRIME Programme

• The programme was launched in 2021 by MeitY in collaboration with NASSCOM.
• It aims to promote skill development in emerging technologies.

Key features:

• Focuses on industry-relevant skills in Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing and data analytics.
• It ranked third globally in the European Commission’s Pact for Skills Report 2024 for industry-focused training in these areas.

National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT)

• NIELIT contributes to developing India’s skilled technology workforce.
• Its network includes:
• 56 centres.
• 750 affiliated institutes.
• More than 9,000 facilitation centres.
• It provides training in emerging technology areas such as:
• Cloud computing.
• Artificial Intelligence.
• Internet of Things (IoT).

Way Ahead

• India’s cloud ecosystem is undergoing rapid expansion, with cloud data capacity projected to grow nearly four to five times by 2030.
• The following areas are important for strengthening this ecosystem:

1. Expanding domestic infrastructure: Continued investment in data centres can increase India’s domestic data-processing and storage capacity.
2. Developing skilled human resources: Targeted skill-development programmes can prepare professionals for emerging cloud-based technologies.
3. Encouraging innovation: Greater availability of cloud infrastructure can support innovation, digital services and technology-based entrepreneurship.
4. Strengthening digital transformation: Cloud computing can become an important foundation for India’s long-term digital development.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is emerging as a critical pillar of India’s digital transformation. The expansion of data centres, growth of cloud service providers and development of technology skills are strengthening the country’s digital infrastructure.

Going forward, sustained investment in domestic cloud capacity and skilled human resources will be essential to support innovation, improve digital service delivery and build a resilient digital ecosystem.

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