Indian states and their propensity to exaggerate their GSDP numbers

The higher estimate of the GSDP for a state allows the concerned finance minister to project a higher level of expenditure, particularly when revenues are flat

About a decade or more after it became obvious that gross domestic product calculations by many states are not even estimates, but aspirations, the practice shows no signs of easing off. Statistical authorities have got so reconciled to the divergence that the Central Statistics Office (CSO) produces an internal document, “comparable state domestic product” for use by key government agencies. 

In pandemic-hit FY21, when the CSO calculated the economy had shrunk by 1.4 per cent at current prices, the sum of the gross state domestic products as the states calculated showed a vibrant growth rate of over 6 per cent, year