A study, titled 'The start of a new poverty narrative' and published in June 2018 in the Brookings' blog, authored by Homi Kharas, Kristofer Hamel and Martin Hofer, put that: With persistent decline in poverty, India is no longer a nation having largest number of poor people in the world.

According to the study,
At the end of May 2018, our trajectories suggest that Nigeria had about 87 million people in extreme poverty, compared with India's 73 million.
Democratic Republic of the Congo could soon take over the number 2 spot
By the end of 2018 in Africa as a whole, there will probably be about 3.2 million more people living in extreme poverty than at present.
Noting that about 725 million people were in extreme poverty at the beginning of 2016, the report said, "We needed to reduce poverty by 1.5 people every second to achieve the goal and yet we have been moving at a pace of only 1.1 people per second."