Num ooru, Mysuru, nim ooru yaar ooru (Mysuru is my town, what is your town?). Decades ago, I sang that line with a child’s fierce conviction. Recently, my wife and I followed that childhood refrain back, driving from Bengaluru to Mysuru. We made the most of the journey. Three stops. Three elements. Three encounters with […]
GDP Part 3: Making Sense of India’s Recent GDP Controversies
When countries change how they measure GDP, old numbers almost always get revised. In developing countries, as better data becomes available over time, these revisions can be large and spark debate. India is especially vulnerable to this dynamic. Its huge informal sector complicates GDP measurement. At the same time, Prime Minister Modi has made development […]
GDP Part 2: Just How Messy Is India’s GDP Data?
India is about to reset its economic clock; it’s overhauling how it measures GDP. By the end of next month, it will announce major changes to its GDP measurement system. To understand what’s coming, let’s see just how messy the current system is. Today, India is among the world’s fastest-growing large economies, the fourth-largest by […]