-The Hindu Business Line Because they are wealthier and have a lower population than northern States New Delhi: The southern States are less dependent on transfers from the Centre than many of their northern peers, but a cut in transfers could leave their fiscal situation precariously poised and upset some of their expenditure plans. That is exactly what they fear will happen when the 15th Finance Commission uses the 2011 population data —...

-Business Standard The dilemma regarding reliability is usually the greatest around the release of advance estimates Analysts at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have questioned the numerous revisions in gross domestic product (GDP) data by the statistics office. RBI has said this confuses analysts about the economy. It suggested the Central Statistics Office (CSO) incorporate data on high frequency economic indicators such as commercial vehicles and international air passenger traffic. It should...

-News18.com In an interview with News18’s Rupashree Nanda, Dreze, who was a member of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council and an architect of the National Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), says that there have been no major initiatives in the social field in the last four years, with the partial exception of Swachh Bharat. Government data reveal that the Indian economy is growing at a robust rate but noted economist Jean Dreze believes...

-The Indian Express While the total taxpayer base grew at an average rate of about 7.9 per cent a year, individual taxpayers recorded an average annual Growth rate of 8.2 per cent in these five years, inching up from 94 per cent in AY 2011-12 to 94.9 per cent in AY 2016-17, according to official data. New Delhi: Even as the country’s total taxpayer base increased to 6.41 crore in assessment year...

-The Indian Express Incomparable data sets, cherry-picking, and dubious statistical analysis are behind the claims of robust employment Growth. Only 1.4 million jobs were added in 2017. Surjit Bhalla has invented an estimate that 15 million jobs were created in 2017 (‘Robust job Growth, not fake news,’ IE, April 28). This is an invention; it is not a discovery or an inference by honest statistical analysis. It is an invention because Bhalla...