How poverty line is defined in India?

From 1973-1974 to 1990-00 ,there has been a considerable decline in the number of poor and thier proportion , but the nature of decline in two parameters is not encouraging. the ratio is much slower than the absolute number of poor in the country.

# Number of People Below Poverty Line: In 1973-74 , 321.3 million people were below the poverty line. In 1990-00 ,this number has come to 260.2 million.

# Proportion of People Below Poverty Line : In terms of proportion , in 1973-74 , 54.9% of the total population was the poverty line . In 1999-00 , it has fallen to 26.1%.