Balakrishnan, Pulapre  and  Raj, Aman   <br/><br/>
The Thali index of the standard of living 

 - Economic & Political Weekly   
 - 61(20), May 16, 2026: p.45-50 
<br/><br/> The use of a food consumption-based index of the standard of living is proposed, positing the consumption of two thali meals a day by an individual as the minimum acceptable level. Using such an index, we estimate the share of the food-deprived population using the NSS’s Household Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2023–24. An innovation in our study is the use of actual expenditure on food as the relevant data for measuring food consumption possibility, and thus the standard of living. – Reproduced <br/><br/>https://www.epw.in/journal/special-articles/thali-index-standard-living.html<br/>