SME Times News Bureau | 12 Jun, 2019
The Economic Advisory Council
will examine in detail the estimates made in Dr. Arvind Subramanian's paper and
come out with a point-to-point rebuttal in due course, the government said in a
statement on Wednesday.
The former Chief Economic
Adviser (CEA), Dr. Arvind Subramanian, has published a paper in June, 2019, on the basis of which he has
also published an article in Indian media, making strong claims about India’s
real GDP figures between 2011-12 and 2016-17.
It is worth noting that the
Base Year of India’s income calculations shifted to 2011-12 on the basis of
recommendations of several committees with experts in National Income
Accounting. It was on the basis of these recommendations, started in 2008, that
the Government implemented the change from January, 2015.
Therefore, it is wrong to
suggest that the views of experts have not been taken into account while
changing the Base Year or weights or switching from Annual Survey of Industries
(ASI) to Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) 21, the statement said.
At the moment, it is felt
that any attempt to sensationalize what should be a proper academic debate is
not desirable from the point of view of preserving the independence and quality
of India’s statistical systems, all of which the former CEA is familiar with,
it added.
These are certainly issues that Dr.
Subramanian must certainly have raised while he was working as CEA, though by
his own admission, he has taken time to understand India’s growth numbers and
is still unsure, the statement said.