A recent research paper by the former chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian, and two other economists has shown that India’s macroeconomic growth in this century has been overestimated. According to the authors — Abhishek Anand, Josh Felman and Mr Subramanian — India’s growth rate from 2005 to 2011, under the Manmohan Singh government, was understated by 1 to 1.5 percentage points, while during 2012 to 2023, it was overstated by 1.5 to 2 percentage points. Hence overall growth was actually closer to 4 to 4.5 percentage points rather than the official figure estimated at between 6 to 7 percentage points. Although governments can make reasonable assumptions about economic calculations, the motivation behind the assumptions should not be to make the government look more favourable in terms of economic performance. India was a pioneer in using sophisticated statistical methods to estimate economic data.

Source: The Telegraph March 17, 2026 03:05 UTC