"The NDA government has been very conservative on the fiscal front"
The GDP back series data 'accidently' became public thanks to a report on real sector statistics prepared by a committee constituted by the National Statistical Commission. In the din that ensued, some of the more serious concerns that the committee raised regarding quality of the data got lost. Business Today's Prosenjit Datta and Dipak Mondal caught up with Sudipto Mundle, chairman of the Committee on Real Sector Statistics, which prepared the new series, to dig deeper into the observations made in the report. Edited excerpts:
Base changes happen periodically, but why has it become such a big issue this time? What was the problem getting back series data?
A: You change base because the structure of the economy is changing. Though the structure is changing daily, you cannot adjust it every day. So you take a time series every 10 years and change the base. It happens globally.
However, when you change the base precisely to capture this change, the absence of a back series makes things difficult for anyone interested in long term analysis for policy purpose, market projections, etc. In the absence of back series, they are
