Again, Stop Talking About GDP

India missed another opportunity to shed its obsession with a bad measure of economy.

- Richard Mahapatra

INDIA'S ONGOING bipolarity in political discourse was on display in the past few weeks. A staNDArd exercise to create a comparable data set on gross domestic product (GDP) erupted into a meaningless Congress v BJP duel. In 2015, India changed the methodology to measure GDP. It was but inevitable for normal tracking of the economy to create a comparable data set for years preceding this year. The result showed that the former United Progressive Alliance (UPA) apparently performed better on economic growth than the current National Democratic Alliance (NDA). After intense debates from both sides, the government withdrew the study.