THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the Pinarayi Vijayan government prepares to declare Kerala the first state in the country free from extreme poverty on November 1 – Kerala Piravi Day – several distinguished economists and social activists have raised serious questions about the credibility of the data and methodology used for the claim.

In an open letter addressed to the state government on Thursday, the 24 signatories, including social activist R V G Menon, economists M A Oommen and K P Kannan, former TNIE editor M K Das, and others, urged the government to release an authoritative study report that identifies the extremely poor and validates the poverty eradication process.

The missive highlighted that the government’s announcement – based on a public-participation survey identifying 64,006 ext

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