Parliament Question: Economic statistics and national accounts

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3516 TO BE ANSWERED ON 23.03.2026 ECONOMIC STATISTICS AND NATIONAL ACCOUNTS 3516. SHRI BHUBANESWAR KALITA: Will the Minister of STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION be pleased to State: (a) the manner in which Government is using new data sources, like GST filing and digital payments, for faster GDP and Gross Value Added (GVA) estimation; (b) the steps being taken to finalise the revised Consumer Price Index (CPI) base year, accounting for post-pandemic consumption shifts; (c) whether Government has initiated a review of PLFS methodology to better capture gig and informal sector employment; and (d) if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION; MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE (RAO INDERJIT SINGH) (a): The Ministry has revised Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data with new base year updated from 2011-12 to 2022-23. The revised GDP series has been released on 27th February, 2026. A number of changes such as incorporation of new data sources, updation of rates and ratios, conceptual and methodological changes have been carried out to make the estimates more accurate and reliable. Accordingly, in the new series, Goods and Services Tax (GST) data are being used extensively in compilation of Quarterly, Advance and Provisional estimates of GDP as high-frequency indicators. (b): The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been comprehensively revised with the base year updated from 2012=100 to 2024=100, using the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023–24 to derive the weights and update the item basket. The revised CPI is based on the Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) 2018, which is the latest classification for measurement of private consumption. The number of weighted items has increased from 299 to 358, including improved representation of services, thereby ensuring that the index better reflects current consumption patterns of households across rural and urban areas.(c) and (d): All market activities, i.e., activities performed for pay or profit which result in the production of goods and services for exchange, are included under the domain of economic activity considered in Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The current PLFS schedule is not specifically designed to identify individuals engaged as ‘gig workers’. The activity status of a person who is found to be working or being engaged in economic activity during a specified reference period is associated with employment in PLFS. Hence, even the persons engaged as ‘gig workers’ for pay & profit are covered in PLFS. However, from the survey year 2026, the PLFS has initiated the collection of information on ‘platform workers’, a subset of gig workers, on an experimental basis. This includes identifying persons engaged in or undertaking platform work in the usual status, along with capturing key characteristics associated with platform work. Further, according to the 15th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) conceptual framework, unincorporated enterprises owned by households (i.e., proprietary and partnership enterprises including the informal producers’ cooperatives) are largely considered as informal sector enterprises. In PLFS, proprietary and partnership enterprises are considered as informal sector enterprises. ******