India's GDP Growth Rate: A Controversy Unfolds

India's GDP growth rate for the first quarter of the current financial year (April-June) was recorded at 7.8%. As soon as this figure came out, there was a huge economic and political controversy in the country. The opposition and some critics claimed that the growth rate has actually been only 2.6%, while the government and eminent economists are calling it baseless. The controversy started when former Finance Secretary SC Garg raised questions and alleged that the base of the first quarter of the last financial year was deliberately reduced to show a 7.8% jump this time. What is this whole cycle of 7.8% and 2.6% and is there really a jugglery in the figures? Let's understand it in simple language. Executive Director of the World Bank Neelkanth Mishra clarified that the claim of 2.6% GDP growth is completely misleading and baseless. He said that comparing two different GDP series with each other is fundamentally wrong and the new year's GDP base estimates have also been revised.