Data blues: Govt must urgently improve CSO's functioning

A recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monograph, titled Examining Gross Domestic Product Data Revisions in India, shows how advance estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) are consistently biased downwards and are frequently updated upwards in subsequent periods. Updating GDP figures is an accepted international practice; as more and better data becomes available, it is but natural to incorporate it in the final figure. However, when the initial estimates are consistently biased in one direction, it only shows that not all is right in the country’s statistical regime. Unfortunately, this is just one of the many issues plaguing Indian economic