Letter to BS: Government should be open to course correction over data

The attempt at validating official numbers saying they were arrived at following global standards and endorsed by international agencies would be self-defeating

Former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian’s revelation that India’s GDP growth was grossly overestimated nailed the government’s lie. According to the eminent economist, GDP growth during 2011-12 to 2016-17 was actually 4.5 per cent rather than the 7 per cent as flaunted by the government data. It was a telling argument by him that the growth numbers did not match or relate with key indicators of economic growth such as electricity, consumption, automobile sales, investment and index of industrial production and export earnings, among others. 

Many were wondering how the growth rate could be so high when the economy was perceptibly