India’s latest GDP growth figure has delivered precisely the kind of political dividend that impressive headline numbers are meant to produce. At a time when the Narendra Modi government faces uncomfortable questions about unemployment, weak private investment and uneven consumption, rapid economic growth offers a powerful counter-narrative. But the celebration surrounding the number risks obscuring a more important question: what, exactly, is India measuring?

The controversy over the revised GDP series should not be reduced to a predictable contest between government triumphalism and opposition scepticism. Statistical methodologies require periodic revision. Economies change, new industries emerge and old datasets become inadequate. A failure to update national accounts would itself undermine credibility. If the new methodology genuinely captures economic activity more accurately, its introduction is justified. Yet methodological improvement does not absolve policymakers of the responsibility to explain its consequences clearly.

When revisions substantially alter estimates of the economy’s earlier size, comparisons with subsequent years become inherently more complicated. A spectacular growth rate may reflect genuine acceleration while also benefiting from a recalibrated statistical baseline.........

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