Digital evolution: Our economic statistics can’t afford to get left behind as India’s economy evolves

Globally, decision-makers rely on economic statistics as a dashboard to frame policy. Being left in the dark is too risky. One needs a clear view of current conditions and future projections, for example, to make an apt call on when to fuel growth or step on the brakes to slow inflation.

So, the ministry must be commended. Not only for the revamp, but for trying to bring macro data closer to the lives of ordinary citizens, an effort that includes its release of discussion papers for us to delve into. So far, so good.

The sad reality, however, is that in today’s fast-changing world, statistical systems all over the world are finding it hard to play catch-up as they strive to capture what’s really going on.

This need for clarity explains the value of a voluntary pledge made by AI majors at this year’s AI Impact Summit—as part of the New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments—to publish statistical insights drawn from aggregate AI usage data (with privacy safeguards in place).

As a paper in the IMF’s F&D Magazine (December 2025 edition) by Rebecca Riley, director of the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence, London, points out, “The existing metrics for GDP, consumer prices, productivity and the like are struggling to match the rapid pace of change in technology, business models, and consumer behaviour in today’s data-driven economy.”

As a result, “assessments of the world’s economies may be off by trillions of dollars.” This, she notes, “is more than a little bizarre in a digital world characterized by abundant new data that could help in monitoring the economy and in guiding action by central bankers, fiscal watchdogs and economic policymakers at large.”

Alas, harnessing new data sources is not easy—which the ministry will readily agree with. If trying to estimate the exact GDP contribution of, say, India’s gig economy is one kind of challenge, using GST data to aid GDP estimation is another.

What’s amply clear is the economy’s digital transformation. The way we produce goods and services and how we consume them are in flux. Tech advances have rewired our economy in key ways, with AI racing to turbo-charge change, but we’ve been slow to rewire our statistics. This has left huge blind spots for policymakers.

Much of the digital economy is data-driven, reliant on software and marketing databases. Companies have been investing big sums in intangibles, some of them even more than in buildings and factories.

Yet, the extent to which all this gets reflected in GDP measures has been hazy. On the face of it, new sources, improved methodology, technology and greater use of surveys should help bridge gaps between the production (or income) approach and the expenditure tally, a perennial source of controversy in India.

Given how fast economies are evolving, innovative gauges are the need of the hour. Only then can we address the “growing gap between what is measured and the new increasingly diverse economic reality we are living,” in Professor Riley’s words. The statistics ministry has much further work to do.