<b>T N Ninan: </b>'The opposite is also true'

Beware of simplistic conclusions about the Indian economy, because the data are often contradictory

The quarterly numbers on gross domestic product (GDP) have added fuel and revived the debate on notebandi. The results of the state elections, due next Saturday, will doubtless provide fuel of another kind. For the moment, critics and others have been befuddled by the flattering numbers on economic growth (no apparent change from the pre-notebandi assessment for the October-December quarter), while the government understandably has used them to stick it into its critics’ eyes. That’s fair enough, given that the charge of “organised loot and legalised plunder” was always over the top. Still, it is not yet time for a