Jalan defends govt on GDP calculation

Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan has defended the government on GDP calculation, saying it is difficult to gather data from every nook and corner of the country.
"It is very difficult statistically to go the remotest area of the country to see what the gross domestic product (GDP) is in terms of value added. And it requires time," Jalan said while speaking at a book launch.
He was speaking at launch of 'From Narasimha Rao to Narendra Modi' by journalist & columnist Swaminathan Aiyar. The book was unveiled by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The government came under severe criticism from various quarters, while estimating 7 per cent GDP growth for third quarter ended December, discounting affect of demonetisation on the economy.

Jalan said the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has been doing a good job in terms of conducting surveys and census by capturing real statistics of the country.
Speaking about economic reforms India has undertaken since 1991 and the ongoing transformation, Jalan said still India lacks on many counts.

"Despite India is among fastest rising country, why is that it is at the bottom when comes to human development index in terms of education, in terms of literacy and in terms of sanitation," he asked.
He stressed that more power needs to be delegated to institutions and given autonomy, adding, civil servants too need to be given autonomy take decisions to bring about systematic changes.

Despite all the industrial development, rising corporate sector and economy growing at the fastest pace in the world, India lags behind when it comes to transfer of services or benefits to 40 per cent of the population.
"That is the issue that we have to thing about. We are still not able to deliver services to the people. India is the largest democracy then why we grapple with the issue that the largest democracy in the world elect a political class that gives you what we are seeing," he wondered.
"It is the same political class that gave you industrialisation. We are proud of our democracy, then why the political class acts the way it acts," he said.