Reimagining Industrial Era GDP measures

…and getting GDP to measure India's data economy

We Indians seem to think of headlines about India’s gross domestic product (GDP) numbers as newsworthy as headlines about India’s scores in One-Day Internationals (ODI) or headlines about how many Indian films got nominated for the Oscars this year: All measures of national self-worth and success in the international arena. Thus, an announcement that India’s GDP in a year rivalled or exceeded that of China is met with applause not much different from the feelings we have when headlines proclaim that India has trumped Australia (or better still Pakistan) in an ODI. We also await breathlessly the results of the