New Delhi, Mar 23 (IANS): After the government faced flak over the Planning Commission's latest poverty estimates, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said a government panel would devise new methods to assess poverty in the country as the issue needs a multi-layered approach.

"We have set up a group to devise a new methodology to asses poverty... the issue needs a multi-layered approach," he told reporters on the side lines of the Padma Awards ceremony.

The prime minister said the Tendulkar panel report, which puts the number of poor at 37.5 percent of the population, and the earlier poverty estimates are not all inclusive.

He said the ongoing socio-economic and caste census would throw up the poverty estimates.

The Planning Commission came under sharp criticism for saying that anyone earning over Rs.28 per day in urban areas and Rs.22 per day in rural areas is not poor.

Correct estimates of poverty are critical to ensure thousands of crores of rupees being spent by the government on various welfare schemes go only to genuine beneficiaries.