This paper tries to summarise the current state of knowledge about chronic poverty in India and identify the agenda for further research. An ove rview of the trends in incidence of income poverty in India is provided so as to place chronic poverty in context. It views chronic poverty in terms of severity, extended duration and multidimensional deprivation. It tries to identify the states and regio ns that have a high incidence of people with incomes severely below the poverty line so as to focus attention on areas that are spatial poverty traps. Those unable to access even two square meals a day are considered to be the most severely deprived and hu nger exists even in the supposedly better parts of India. Policy action is needed to address this. Attention is also drawn to the importance of identifying those who are vulnerable to extreme poverty due to inability to absorb the impact of shocks. The i ncidence of chronic poverty in the duration sense is studied on the basis of analysis of panel data sets in the literature. Casual agricultural labourers are the largest group and cultivators the second largest among the chronically poor. The bulk of the chronically poor depend on wages.