National Accounts Series:A Review and Highlights of Crucial Issues for Debate

The latest re-basing of India’s National Accounts series from 2004-05 to 2011-12 has been one of the most radical changes introduced ever in the adoption of new data sources as well as in the application of new concepts based on international guidelines for the revisions in the methodology of their compilation. These changes have aroused unusual misgivings and considerable debate amongst the academic circles and in the media. This paper seeks to provide an exposition of the rationale for the changes introduced so that there is better appreciation of the same, and at the same time, attempt some critical evaluation of the revisions made so that we could offer constructive suggestions for improving the overall results including, wherever necessary, the quality of estimates.