National Statistical Commission to visit UP as Yogi govt requests it to consider change in GSDP methodology

State government feels current methodology does not portray the right picture of Uttar Pradesh’s economic growth as contribution of unorganised sector is not taken into account

The National Statistical Commission (NSC) is scheduled to visit Uttar Pradesh next week (October 14) following the Yogi Adityanath government’s request to consider a change in the methodology to work out the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to take into account the unorganised sector’s contribution to the state economy.

National Statistical Commission led by chairman Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar, along with its members, is scheduled to reach Lucknow on October 14. (FILE PHOTO)

The chief minister has set the target of taking the GSDP to a trillion dollars by 2029-30. While the GSDP is estimated to have reached ₹29.6 lakh crore at the end of 2024-25, taking it to the trillion-dollar level within the stipulated period remains a major challenge.

Those aware of the development said the state government contended that the present method (to work out the GSDP) needs to be changed to take into account the unorganised sector that contributed a large chunk to the economy of Uttar Pradesh as the present methodology does not reflect the growth of the state’s economy properly. If the contribution of the unorganised sector to the economy is taken into account, the GSDP would have been nearly ₹32 lakh crore even now, those in the know of things said.

The state government had earlier got a team of the state’s economic and statistical division to undergo training in collecting, compiling and disseminating the statistics.

A meeting was also held with the officers of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation and the issue of methodology and improvement in the GSDP was discussed there. It has been felt that a large number of educational institutes like the coaching institutes and hospitals/nursing homes are not adequately covered and thus their contribution to the economy is not properly accounted for in the GSDP.

A senior officer said the NSC may also visit some other states like Karnataka and study the situation there before submitting its report by the end of 2025-26. The state government is also conducting an annual survey of the unorganised sector.

It is also conducting a survey of the periodic labour force.

“With these surveys, we will be able to capture the ground realities,” said the officer. The state government, in recent years, has been consistently publishing the District Domestic Product (DDP) and some suggestions have been worked out to modify the methodology to portray a right picture of growth of the economy.

Another officer said once the NSC agrees to a new methodology, the same would be applied to work out not only the GSDP but the GDP as well in coming years.

The Union government, through a resolution dated June 1, 2005 set up the National Statistical Commission. The setting up of the NSC followed the decision of the Cabinet, which accepted the recommendations of the Rangarajan Commission.

The Rangarajan Commission reviewed the Indian Statistical System in 2001. The NSC was constituted with effect from July 12, 2006 with a mandate to evolve policies, priorities and standards in statistical matters.