49.6 crore (496 million) people climbed above the poverty line in India, the World Bank records

The World Bank Group's October 2026 Poverty & Equity Brief for India records one of the largest escapes from poverty ever measured: between 2011 and 2023, 49.6 crore (496 million) people moved above the $4.20-a-day lower-middle-income line, and that poverty rate fell from 57.7% to 16.1%. At the stricter $3-a-day line, extreme poverty fell from 27.1% to 2.6%. Behind the percentages are ordinary shifts at enormous scale — 13.4 crore (134 million) more people in work between 2017 and 2023, rural women entering paid work in large numbers, and electricity access reaching 99% of the country. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal presented the brief's findings on Friday.

SDG 1 · No poverty