India on Wednesday said that the number of poor people living in the country have declined to 27 million from 40.74 million a decade ago."As per the estimates of Planning Commission, the number of persons living below the poverty line in the country has declined from 40.74 crore (40.74 million) in 2004-05 to 27 crore (27 million) in 2011-12," Indian Minister of State for Planning Rajeev Shukla told the parliament.He said northern state of Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of poor people living below the poverty line at 5.98 million in 2011-12, followed by eastern state of Bihar at 3.58 million, central state of Madhya Pradesh 2.34 million, western state of Maharashtra 1.97 million and West Bengal 1.84 million.Planning Commission is the nodal agency for estimation of poverty at the national and state levels and the surveys are normally conducted on quinquennial basis.