“The credibility of India’s official statistics has hit rock-bottom in recent years.” This is the conclusion reached by Milan’s guest on the show this week, Pramit Bhattacharya. Today, economists openly question the sanctity of India’s GDP growthfigures. The government has chosen to scrap or suppress economic surveys it has conducted when they have thrown up inconvenient truths. And the apex statistical body in the country has been hollowed out by mass resignations.
Few have studied these issues more closely that Pramit Bhattacharya, who serves as data editor at Mint. Milan Vaishnav (Director of the South Asia programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) and Pramit discuss the decline in India’s legendary statistical prowess, the controversy over faulty GDP figures, the scrapping of inconvenient government surveys, and the broader adverse impacts on India’s economic credibility.