India’s Move Toward ‘Data Nationalism’ and Post-Truth Governance
Across three major areas involving climate risk, press freedom and economic reporting, the government is steadily moving away from global benchmarks. It is discarding international assessments and building its own homegrown versions instead. These are managed or overseen by government bodies, which gives it more control over both the data and the story the data tells. The result is a system that does not just measure progress. It also quietly rewrites what progress is supposed to mean.
Why the IMF Gave India a Low Score on Economic Data Quality
In its 2025 Data Adequacy Assessment, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave India a ‘C’ grade for the quality of its national accounts and government finance data. In plain terms, that means the data has enough problems to make economic analysis tricky and sometimes unreliable.
Bhutan’s Journalists Face Growing Information Blockades
Officials in Bhutan appear to have cultivated a habit of avoiding the media and withholding information, leaving journalists with few avenues for access. The resulting silence is straining an already fragile media landscape, pushing it closer to collapse.
Kerala Set to Declare End of Extreme Poverty, Experts Question the Basis
As Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan prepares to formally declare the state the first in India to be entirely free from extreme poverty on November 1, a group of economists, statisticians and public intellectuals have posed a basic and unavoidable question: how was this conclusion reached?
Probe Finds Over 5,000 Dubious Voters in Election Commission’s Bihar Draft Roll
Thousands of people already registered as voters in Uttar Pradesh have appeared on the Election Commission of India’s draft electoral roll for a single Bihar Assembly constituency, according to an investigation by The Reporters’ Collective. The entries include individuals with two separate voter identity numbers, raising concerns about illegal double registrations before Bihar’s upcoming polls.
Investigative Report Challenges Govt’s Claim of Lifting Millions Out of Poverty
In the months leading up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the ruling party claimed that nearly 250 million people had emerged from poverty during the 10 years of its government. However, an investigation by The Reporters’ Collective shows that the figure was the culmination of discreet efforts by an inter-ministerial unit to counter India’s global rankings.
Over 80% of Indians Spend Less Than 200 Rupees ($3) a Day: Survey
Nearly 34% of India’s population lives on less than 100 rupees ($1.2) a day, according to the latest household consumption expenditure survey. Further, 47.3% of Indians manage with less than 200 rupees ($2.4) daily. Combined, these figures account for 81.1% of the population living under this threshold.
2024 Election Analysis: BJP’s Declining Influence Despite Stable Vote Share
Some pollsters are attempting to minimize the apparent decline of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha election results by drawing attention to the party’s vote share, which has decreased by only 0.7% compared to the 2019 election results. However, despite their expertise as psephologists, they are overlooking the fact that gauging a political party’s popularity and success solely by its overall vote share in a first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system can indeed be simplistic and misleading.
10 Things the Government Says It Can’t Tell You
The central government frequently responded with “no data” to parliamentary questions concerning at least 10 vital issues, according to an analysis by IndiaSpend. Between 2015 and 2023, out of 35 key questions regarding health, education and public safety, the government claimed that data was not maintained in 17 instances.
IMF Rejects India’s 8% Growth Forecast as Unrealistic
There’s a significant disconnect between the official narrative about India’s economic growth and the underlying reality. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) spokeswoman Julie Kozack has clarified that the views of Krishnamurthy Subramanian, India’s representative at the IMF, do not represent the IMF’s stance. The clarification followed Subramanian’s forecast of 8% growth for India, contradicting the IMF’s official projection of 6.5%.
Is GDP a Good Indicator of India’s Economic Health?
In an interview with journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire, Pronab Sen, India’s former chief statistician, shed light on a crucial aspect of our economy – the way we calculate our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For many, GDP might be a distant, abstract figure, often mentioned in news headlines but rarely understood in its full context. However, Sen’s insights reveal why this figure, and the way we measure it, should matter to us all.