• •Former Chief Statistician TCA Anant published a defense of the government's revised GDP calculation methodology.
• •The analysis addresses specific technical critiques regarding the selection of base years and the transition to the MCA-21 database.
• •Uncertainty remains regarding the extent to which the revised data correlates with high-frequency indicators like private consumption or credit growth.

TCA Anant, India’s former Chief Statistician, has issued a detailed response defending the methodology behind the new GDP series. This move follows years of academic and institutional debate regarding how the government accounts for corporate activity and informal sector shifts since the 2011-12 base year. Critics argue that the reliance on the MCA-21 database creates a disconnect between official growth figures and underlying economic reality, yet Anant maintains the shift was a necessary evolution of data collection. Whether this technical clarification successfully mitigates long-standing concerns among independent economists remains to be seen.