New Delhi: With India’s economy frequently sliding up and down the world’s top economies rankings, Financial Times reports on new GDP measuring metrics and their “relative success” in India.
“For years, critics have said India’s GDP figures were overly optimistic. But new methodology shows allegations that the government has been flattering growth were unfounded,” says to Saurabh Garg, the statistics ministry secretary, in the report filed by Michael Stott and Andres Schipani.
Garg, a career civil servant, was brought in two years ago by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to overhaul the national statistics ministry. The new methodology, introduced under Garg, takes account of inflation differently and uses additional data sources, the report adds.
To that end, the report notes, Garg has also stated that growth was actually higher than previously reported for the past two-three years. “If you look at all the three years together, (GDP growth) has been consistently over 7 per cent,” he said.
According to the report, the new GDP series uses the 2022-23 fiscal year as its base year, rather than 2011-12. The one outlier for real growth under the new methodology was 2023-24, which was two percentage points lower than the old series, a divergence Garg dismissed as a slight dip.
“It is not yet clear whether the overhaul will end longstanding doubts about India’s reported growth or suggestions it was overstated in recent years,” the report notes.
A column in The Economist describes Gautam Adani as an escape artist. “Gautam Adani, an Indian industrialist, has been called many things: A tycoon, a fraudster, a Bollygarch and worse. His close relationship with Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has left him dogged by claims of cronyism. Admirers and critics might agree on one label, however: Master escapologist,” the column says.
“In 1998, Mr Adani survived an alleged kidnapping attempt. A decade later he escaped a terrorist attack in Mumbai when gunmen stormed a luxury hotel he was visiting for a dinner,” it adds.
However, it’s Adani’s latest “escape” that has amused global media.
In November 2024, federal prosecutors in New York alleged that Adani and seven others, including his nephew, had paid more than $250 million in bribes for a $2 billion solar-power deal in India. A parallel civil case was filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
However, on 18 May, the Department of Justice (DoJ) dropped its charges, a few days after the SEC settled for a mere 18 million dollars, without admission of guilt. Adani’s lawyers had argued that there was no evidence to support the two cases, that there were no victims and that the prosecution lacked legal authority because the supposed events took place in India. A third case involving alleged purchases of Iranian gas, despite US President Donald Trump’s sanctions, was settled for the more sizeable sum of $275 million on the same day as the DoJ settlement.
Adani, who could not travel to the US over fears of arrest, once again “escaped”.
“It is the second time Mr Adani has emerged from trouble relatively unscathed in the past few years. In January 2023, Hindenburg Research, an investment firm, alleged that the Adani Group was committing accounting fraud and inflating its stock prices through shell companies. That episode wiped $150 billion off the conglomerate’s market value over a few weeks and led to the cancellation of a share offering.”
Yet, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) gave Adani a clean chit. The Adani group’s vallue is up 30 percent since the start of this year to over $200 billion.
“Adani Green Energy, its clean-power business, is set to benefit as India looks for alternatives to hydrocarbons from the Gulf. The group is also looking to cash in on artificial intelligence. It has signed deals with Google and other hyperscalers to provide electricity to their data centres. And in February, Adani Enterprises, the conglomerate’s core enterprise, revealed that it would invest some $100 billion in data centres of its own over the next ten years,” the column says.
The BBC’s Soutik Biswas and Neetu Singh report from Banda in UP, one of India’s hottest towns. “By 6 am, the sun over Banda had already forgotten it was morning. The light had the hard glare of a summer afternoon. Shadows were shrinking before breakfast.”
Temperatures have soared up to 48 degrees Celsius in Banda this summer. “Yet what was striking was the way in which people adapted. Banda’s more than two million residents—many dependent on farming, construction, transport and other outdoor work—had little option but to endure the heat. They were rearranging their lives around it.”
Farmers come to market at the crack of the dawn aiming to wind up sale before the afternoon sun hits. Working women carry onion, salt, and pickle with their chapatis, as cooked vegetables spoil in the heat. Masons begin their work early in the morning and pause by noon, and then resume work in late afternoon. While they are working eight hours technically, their work hours have essentially gone up to 12 and 13.
There is a river called Ken that flows through Banda. But, it’s not helping with the heat.
“The river lies at the heart of Banda’s struggle with heat. Researchers say sand mining and groundwater depletion have weakened its ability to cool the surrounding landscape, creating a vicious cycle in which water scarcity and extreme temperatures reinforce one another.”
The heat is also taking a toll on Banda’s economic life. “E-rickshaw drivers find afternoons barren of passengers. Shopkeepers open before sunrise and shut between noon and 4 pm. Customers have halved. Entire towns retreat indoors during the fiercest hours, emerging again only in the evening.”
Mobile phones buzz repeatedly with government alerts warning of severe heatwave conditions. Stay alert, stay cautious, the messages warn.
There’s an influx of patients in the hospital due to the heatwave. On average, a single day sees 15-20 additional cases.
The heat persists even after the sun sets. “It feels as if mornings and nights no longer exist,” a resident told the BBC.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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