Which of the following Committees recommended a poverty line based on nutritional requirements exclusively?

1. A

   Alagh Committee

   (a) Alagh Committee. The 1979 Task Force under Y.K. Alagh drew the official poverty line from calorie/nutritional norms alone—2400 kcal rural and 2100 kcal urban—then found the consumption expenditure that bought those calories. That exclusive nutrition basis is the official key.

2. B

   Lakdawala Committee

   (b) Lakdawala Committee. The 1993 Expert Group kept calorie anchors but scaled lines with state-wise prices and used NSS quantities; it was not nutrition-only.

3. C

   Tendulkar Committee

   (c) Tendulkar Committee. 2009 shifted to a mixed consumption basket (food plus education, health, clothing) and urban-rural price differentials, dropping a pure calorie line.

4. D

   Rangarajan Committee

   (d) Rangarajan Committee. 2014 used a broader basket and separate rural/urban lines with higher nutritional and non-food allowances, again not nutrition exclusively.

Summary. Official key is (a) Alagh Committee. Only Alagh 1979 set the poverty line from nutritional calorie requirements alone. Lakdawala added state prices, Tendulkar a multi-item basket, and Rangarajan a still wider consumption cut-off. Later committees therefore fail the word ‘exclusively’. The keyed name is the 1979 calorie task force.