When data accord with the model, Rasch derived measures have the same meaning throughout the range of measurement and the relative locations of any two items (or persons) are independent of the locations of other items or persons.
While some measures have the potential to help, there has been little by way of new investment.
These measures have the potential to put more money in pensioners' pockets without much impact on the exchequer.
"Every government makes use of one-off measures, but not all the measures have the same future costs," said Giuseppe Pisauro, an economics professor at the University of Perugia.
"These measures have the effect of pressurizing India in the same way that economic sanctions do," said Ashok Soota, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, an influential trade organization.
But such measures have the crucial drawback of making the cost of providing such pensions so high that companies have opted out from providing them for future generations of workers.
However, while many in the dairy industry are excited about the new guidelines, voices in the sustainability field question whether voluntary measures have the power to effect needed change.
None of the measures have the force of law: capital punishment is a matter for the state legislatures, not local governments, and no legislature is actively considering abolishing its death penalty.
The measures have the potential to help clean up China's notoriously dirty air and water, reduce long-term health care costs and improve the long-term quality of Chinese growth.
Even therapeutic measures have the result not only of curing the patient but of reducing the foci of infection; for example, the present comparative rarity of tuberculosis is to a considerable extent a result of the fact that nowadays the average person seldom comes in contact with the tubercle bacillus.
Hemodynamic measures have the most evidence to support their use.
