A recently-released Report of the Committee on Real Sector Statistics, published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government busted the myth that the rate of economic growth under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been higher than the earlier two terms of the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh.
The report has made available Gross Value Product (GDP) data 1993-94 onwards, calculated on the basis of the new series, implemented in January 2015, which show, according to expert calculations, that India's GDP annually grew on an average at 8.34% and 7.67% under Singh's two terms as Prime Minister, in 2004-05 to 2008-09 and 2009-10 to 2013-14, respectively.
The calculations further show that under the two phases when the BJP-led governments -- under AB Vajpayee and Modi -- the average growth rate was 5.73% per annum (1998-99 to 2003-04) and 7.34% (2014-15 to 2017-18).
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| Average annual growth rate |
The new series calculated GDP at 2011-12 prices, and till the publication of this report, there was no way one could make reasonable comparisons between different phases of government rule. "Given this, economic growth (as measured by GDP growth) could only be measured from 2012-2013 onwards", says Vivek Kaul in an email alert of his diary published by the Equitymaster Agora Research.
"In simple terms, there was no data available which would allow us to calculate GDP growth for the pre-2012-2013 period. If I were to put it slightly more dramatically, suddenly India had no economic history, at least in data terms", he adds.
"In simple terms, there was no data available which would allow us to calculate GDP growth for the pre-2012-2013 period. If I were to put it slightly more dramatically, suddenly India had no economic history, at least in data terms", he adds.
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