Economists' warning signal: To regain India's data credibility, govt should withdraw faulty GDP back series, release NSSO job numbers

The Mundle series showed that the GDP growth had actually touched the double-digit mark, India has been desperately hoping for, in 2006-07. That’s what reflects in a letter released on Thursday by 108 economists and social scientists calling for restoration of “institutional independence” and integrity to the statistical organisations in India freeing critical data releases from the clutch of damaging ‘political interference.’ The group has appealed to economists, statisticians and independent researchers to come together to raise their voice against the tendency “to suppress uncomfortable data” and impress upon the government to restore access and integrity to public statistics and re-establish institutional independence. That being the GDP story, the next round of attack on India’s data came when the Narendra Modi government refused to release the results of the latest surveys on the employment count in the country. How can Narendra Modi government regain the lost credibility of India’s official data on growth and jobs? First, the government should, at least now, show the political courage to withdraw the controversial GDP back series that has no link with the reality on the ground and let the CSO rework the back series numbers independently from the NITI Aayog which shouldn’t be in data compilation in the first place.