India’s economy grew by 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter, beating analyst expectations, official data released on 31 August by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed.
The first-quarter (GDP) numbers have been caught in a crossfire, with a slugfest of unending salvos from Congress party accusing Modi government of using PR to ‘polish the picture.’
Prime Minister termed the GDP growth a ‘herculean feat.’
The Congress party cited criticism by former finance secretary on GDP numbers to attack the government, saying it must understand that ‘PR can polish the picture’ of GDP but not the economy itself. Party general secretary in charge of communications, , shared a video clip of Garg in which he stated that, by revising last year’s GDP by as much as ₹6 trillion, the current year’s first-quarter GDP has risen by 2.6 per cent.
“If you had not revised last year’s GDP, the growth in current prices would have been 2.6 per cent,” Garg told a news channel.
The also posted an image of a beer mug, showing the Indian economy as the actual liquid and the official GDP numbers as fizz.
What did Subhash Chandra Garg say?
Former foreign secretary Garg, who took voluntary retirement from service, questioned the .
In an interview with NDTV, Garg suggested that GDP growth would have been just about 2.6 per cent in current prices if last year’s GDP had not been revised down from roughly ₹86 lakh crore to ₹80 lakh crore.
Garg pointed out that real GDP data for the first quarter of the previous year was released under the old series rather than the new one. He said, however, that the figure used as the base for comes from the new series.
Garg pointed out that the (MoSPI), which released the fresh data, retrospectively lowered Q1 FY2025-26 nominal GDP from about ₹86.05 trillion to ₹80.00 trillion, a reduction of roughly ₹6.05 trillion, with much of the production-side revision concentrated in services.
Garg’s 2.6 per cent growth claim comes from comparing the old-vintage ₹86.05 trillion with the latest Q1 FY2026-27 nominal GDP of ₹88.27 trillion, according to experts.
MoSPI had previously reported ₹86.05 trillion of nominal GDP for Q1 FY2025-26 and now reports roughly ₹80 trillion for that same quarter.
MoSPI responded called Garg’s claim ‘unfortunate.’ The Government also came up with an explanation. On 2 September, the government rejected the claim that it revised down last year’s from ₹86 lakh crore to ₹80 lakh crore to make this year’s growth rate look better. The government said in a press statement that the difference was the result of changes to the GDP series, improved data and successive revisions.
The government said that comparison is not valid because the ₹86.05 lakh crore figure was calculated under the old 2011-12 base-year series, while the latest Q1 FY27 figure is from the new series with 2022-23 as the base year.
₹86 lakh cr to ₹80 lakh crore: Govt’s explanation
The government said the Q1 2025-26 GDP estimate was initially released on August 29, 2025 under the then prevailing 2011-12 base-year series. Under that series, GDP at current prices for Q1 2025-26 was estimated at ₹86.05 lakh crore, the government said.
In February 2026, the government introduced the new GDP series with 2022-23 as the base year.
“As part of a base-year revision, the GDP estimates for the entire time series are comprehensively revised to incorporate updated data sources, improved methodologies, revised coverage and other relevant information. Accordingly, the estimate of Q1 2025-26 GDP at current prices under the new series was ₹80.32 lakh crore,” the statement said.
Also, the time of release of the of GDP for 2025-26 on June5, 2026, the Q1 2025-26 estimate was further updated to ₹80.44 lakh crore, reflecting the availability and updation of indicators and data.
Subsequently, the new series of IIP and PPI became available and were incorporated into the GDP compilation. Their incorporation necessitated updating the relevant GDP estimates from 2022-23 onwards. As a result, the Q1 2025-26 GDP at current prices was revised to ₹80.00 lakh crore.
The (IIP) and the newly introduced Producer Price Index (PPI) are key macroeconomic indicators updated under India’s recent statistical database overhaul with a base year of 2022–23
Thus, the movement from ₹86.05 lakh crore to ₹80.00 lakh crore is the result of successive revisions to the GDP series arising from the change in base year, the explanation said.
“Most importantly, the ₹86.05 lakh crore estimate from the old 2011-12 series cannot be directly compared with the current Q1 2026-27 estimate under the revised 2022-23 series,” the Government said
Rather, the growth rates are calculated using estimates from the same and latest comparable GDP series i.e., with base 2022-23, the government said.
“Thus, the relevant comparison for Q1 2026-27 of ₹88.27 lakh crore would have been with the earlier of ₹80.32 lakh crore, and not with the old ₹86.05 lakh crore estimate from the superseded series,” it said.
Ex-RBI Governor also flags numbers
Former (RBI) Governor also questioned why is India not able to generate enough jobs for youngsters if the economy is growing at such a fast pace. Rajan said that he has his doubts on the growth of the Indian economy. In an interview with news agency PTI, the former RBI Governor said that there are some real concerns in case of such a fast economic growth.
“Are these growth numbers real? Even the larger economy is in doubt if the growth numbers aren’t real. There are some discrepancies which one has to worry about which is if we’re growing so fast, why aren’t we creating more jobs? More good jobs?” the former RBI Govenoir said.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister criticised opposition parties and Subhash Garg over his remarks, saying he did not know how to ‘compare apples with apples’ and was trying to misguide the people of India.
Goyal said that in this global world of turmoil, India is an oasis in the desert and the country continued to be the fastest-growing amongst large economies of the world.
“When I see on television some of the opposition leaders, even possibly you can throw in along with them a (Garg) or a former Reserve Bank governor, both of whom could not complete their time in India or in the government and for the right reasons. They don’t even know how to compare apples with apples,” Goyal said.
(With agency inputs)