India's GDP growth rate contraction in April-June quarter amid the pandemic made headlines on Monday. The GDP growth rate slumped by 23.9% in the first quarter of the Financial Year 2020-21 if we were to blame something for this, it is probably the pandemic and subsequent lockdown.
Well, the data put out by National Statistical Office is not quite surprising. However, what surprised Indians is the graph showing India's contraction is more than the US.
A graph by a business zine Business Today showed that India's GDP growth rate slumped the most, even more than the US.
What's worth noting is that the data was compared with the quarter on quarter data of some countries and year on year data of other countries. Well, that's not how it is done. One either compares year on year data or quarter on quarter data. To simplify this, one does not compare apple to oranges, right?
The graph was shared by several people including India Today Anchor and Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai and he was trolled mercilessly for this.
Sardesai had tweeted, "Covid has affected economies worldwide but India’s Q 1 contraction is the worst among all large economies in the world. Take a look here: #GetReal"
BJP leader Sanju Verma promptly replied to the journalist and said, "Rajdeep,after i exposed lies peddled by @BT_India,they changed below mentioned graphic,still used by you,to peddle fake naarative against @narendramodi govt. Do you know difference between annualised&sequential numbers? US GDP fall is 32.9%&Japan's is 27.8%,worse off than India!"
Even after several slammed the journalist for the comparison, Sardesai's tweet still remains on his feed.
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