ZCZC
BCN-10
INDIA-ECONOMY-GROWTH-GDP
Indian GDP grows better under Congress’ rule than Modi’s, says report
NEW DELHI, Aug. 18 (BSS/Xinhua) — A report prepared by an Indian government-
appointed panel has reportedly suggested that the gross domestic product
(GDP) growth rate was better under the previous two governments headed by the
Indian National Congress (INC) than under the present-day Narendra Modi’s
government.
The INC is currently the main opposition party in the country, after
losing the last general elections in 2014 to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and
its alliance partners. It headed two successive governments of five years
term each from 2004 till 2014 — “United Progressive Alliance” (UPA)
governments led by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The data was presented in a report to the Committee on Real Sector
Statistics which was submitted before the National Statistical Commission
recently.
The back-dated data on the new series of GDP prepared by the government-
panel on real sector statistics concluded that the Indian economy grew in
double digits twice during the previous two alliance governments led by INC,
i.e. 2004-2009 and 2009-2014.
The new series has 2011-12 as the base year, even as earlier series were
based on 2004-05 and 1993-94. The data showed that GDP grew by 10.23 percent
in 2007-08 and 10.78 percent in 2010-11 against the earlier numbers of 9.32
percent and 8.91 percent, respectively, reported the business daily Business
Standard.
Another English daily The Indian Express reported that the average
economic growth rate was 8.87 percent during the first term (2004-09) of the
UPA government, which fell to 7.39 percent during its second term (2009-14),
whereas the average growth rate in first four years of the present BJP-led
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government (2014-18) was recorded at 7.35
percent.
The paper further reported that the only year when India registered a
double digits growth rate was 2006-07 when it touched 10.08 percent. This was
only the second time in India’s history when GDP had crossed double digit
mark. The previous occasion too happened during a INC regime in 1988-89 when
Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister.
BSS/XINHUA/SR/1930 HRS