NEW DELHI : The Government has ordered exploration of a new base for calculating the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that may reflect a correct picture of the state of economy but without any way to judge if it is better or worse than in the past. No surprise that the Congress has been harping on the government release the GDP numbers based on new and old series for the last ten years as it claims that will tell the truth of the country’s economy worsening since the Modi government came to power.
The data released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Statistics that show India’s growth slowing down to a 2-year low in financial year 2017-17 to 7.1% and still lower at 6.1% in the last quarter are based on the base year of 2011-12 that is being used for official estimate of the GDP since January 2015. It replaced the base of 2004-05 that was being used since January 2010 to calculate the GDP. The Congress insists that the figures calculated on this base will give a correct picture of the dwindling economy and give a lie to the government’s claim of the economic growth accelerating. The exercise is now on to move on to the new base year of 2017-18, citing the practice of revising the base for the GDP every five years to incorporate the new factors.
