Niti Aayog Member Defends Scaling Down UPA-era Growth, Says No Reason to Politicise Move

File photo of NITI Aayog

Indore: A Niti Aayog member on Monday defended the government on scaling down the UPA era growth numbers within four months of raising it, saying they simply analysed and rationalised the data received from the CSO and that there was no reason for politicising it.

The official GDP data released last week had showed that during the four years of present NDA rule the economy grew higher than the previous 10 years of the previous UPA rule, under which, the previously released data showed that the economy grew at the fastest since 1991 peaking at 10.3 per cent in FY11. The only time the GDP grew higher was in FY89 when it grew a shade higher when the late Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister.

Between FY06 and FY15, the GDP averaged at 6.7 per cent down from 8.1 per cent by the CSO earlier as per the FY12 base prices against the four year of the Modi regime when it clipped past the highest growth period is massively down to 8.5 per cent from 10.3 per cent as previously estimated.

“We have analysed the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) data to find out from where GDP scale can be started. These figures were just rationalised,” Niti Aayog member VK Saraswat told reporters here.
He also claimed that the objective behind rationalising the figures was not to tell that the UPA government did not perform well or to claim that the present government is performing better when it comes to growth. “As an expert body, it is the job of Niti Aayog to give our opinion on something presented to us. That is why we have come ahead on GDP issue,” he said.

“I joined Niti Aayog in 2015 and the move to rationalise GDP figures started at that point only. But now when this work is over, some people are trying to give it a political colour,” he said.

He further said according to his personal opinion, GDP growth will touch double-digits figure only by 2030. But to achieve that, productivity has to increase in manufacturing and improve the overall quality of goods to be exported. Saraswat was here to be the chief guest at laser symposium organised by the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, which is being attended by a large number of scientists.