Ex-official disputes India's 7.8% GDP growth claim

A debate over India's official economic growth figures has intensified after former senior government official Subhash Chandra Garg questioned the methodology behind the reported 7.8% GDP growth for the April to June quarter, prompting a rebuttal from the government and criticism from opposition parties. The controversy centers on the impact of a new GDP series and significant revisions to previous data, which Garg argues make the headline growth figure misleading. India's Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the Q1 GDP data on September 1, 2026, showing a 7.8% expansion in real terms. The figure was widely noted as strong, especially amid global economic uncertainty linked to the Iran War and the Strait of Hormuz crisis. However, Garg, a former Finance and Economic Affairs Secretary, has publicly challenged the number's accuracy. In interviews, he pointed to two primary concerns: the base year for comparison has changed due to a new GDP series, and there was a major downward revision to the nominal GDP figure for the same quarter of the previous year.