India's China syndrome

Instead of the average growth of 7 per cent that the official data shows in the period between 2011-12 and 2016-17, Arvind Subramanian's estimate is a meagre 4.5 per cent

Those who are aware of the intense debate on the reliability of China’s economic data should find many familiar elements in the face off between former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian’s (AS) and the keepers of the faith in India’s official data machine. They include the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (the PMEAC), which has issued a rather stern riposte (“GDP estimation in India- Perspectives and Facts”, 19 June 2019) to AS’s claim that the new methodology for measuring India’s GDP with 2011-12 as the base year significantly overstates its growth rate (“India’s GDP Mis-estimation: Likelihood, Magnitudes, Mechanisms, and Implications”,