Human Development Report 1997 introduced the concept of Human Poverty Index (HPI) but Human Development Report replaced it with Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in the year

The correct answer is C, 2010. The Human Poverty Index was first presented in the Human Development Report 1997 as a measure of deprivation, parallel to how HDI measures development. The HDR 2010 replaced it with the Multidimensional Poverty Index, developed by UNDP with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

Why the other options are wrong:

• 1999 and 2005: The HPI was still in use in these years, so no replacement had happened.
• 2015: MPI was already well established by then. The 2015 report did not introduce a new poverty index.

The core concept is the shift from a single-dimension or income-based view to a multidimensional one. MPI covers health, education and living standards, with ten indicators weighted equally across them, and a person counts as poor if weighted deprivations reach one-third. For Mains GS-II and GS-III, this links to India's own national MPI released by NITI Aayog in 2021, and to debates on income poverty lines versus multidimensional measures.

Trap: Candidates confuse the year HPI was introduced (1997) with the year it was replaced, or pick 2015 because MPI became prominent in SDG-era discussions.