Santwana Bhattacharya: Public capital expenditure has driven growth. What will trigger a broad-based private capex cycle?We should rely on data rather than perception. Post-Covid, we now have three years of national income data. The year 2021-22 saw a strong bounce-back. Private capex growth in 2022-23 was reasonable. The disappointment of 2023-24 has disproportionately shaped public perception. Bottom-up data from over 1,700 companies shows that private capex rebounded in 2024–25.India’s gross fixed capital formation-to-GDP ratio is around 31%. In today’s global environment, marked by uncertainty and intense manufacturing competition from China, this is a creditable outcome. Expecting a return to the 35-37% ratios seen during 2003-08 is unrealistic. Developed economies are seeking to onshore production, while Indian firms must invest both at home and abroad to retain markets in the face of Chinese competition.Dipak Mondol: The IMF has given India a ‘C’ grade for national accounts data quality. This fuels scept icism about high growth numbers. Your take.This is not an elephant in the room, it is a minor issue. The IMF introduced letter grades only in 2024. India’s median rating across all data categories remains a “B”. The “C” applies only to national accounts.Growth is measured by comparing like with like over time. The same database, with the same limitations, is used year after year, which makes growth comparisons valid regardless of deficiencies. Issues like base-year revision and the use of a single deflator are well known and are being addressed by the Ministry of Statistics, with improvements expected by 2026.Dipak Mondol: Critics argue that the GDP deflator is too low and inflates real growth.That argument is procedurally flawed. For quarterly GDP estimates, real GDP is estimated first for about 60% of the economy and inflation is added later to derive nominal GDP. It is not a process of deflating a nominal number. Therefore, the criticism doesn’t apply to quarterly estimates.Pushpita Dey: The IMF suggests the $5 trillion economy target is slipping. What is your assessment?Nobody, least of all the IMF, has said it is not possible. In fact, the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook projects India’s GDP at $6.6 trillion by 2030–31.As of March 2025, India stood at $3.9 trillion. Reaching $4 trillion this year requires only about 2.5% growth in dollar terms. Historically, India’s dollar GDP has grown at an average of 8.6% annually over the past three decades. Rupee depreciation may moderate dollar growth this year, but the medium-term trajectory remains intact.
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Parliamentary panel calls for CSIR-IGIB–Tata Memorial collaboration to tackle rising cancer burden in North-East India
Under the rare disease diagnostic programme, the committee commended IGIB for developing India’s first indigenous CRISPR-based gene therapy…
