business

Updated: Jan 23, 2015 00:41 IST

India will announce a new series of gross domestic product data next week, broadening the coverage to across segments including farm, corporate and unorganised sectors — a move that will likely expand the size the economy’s size.

The new series with a base year of 2011-12 is scheduled to be released on January 30. At present, GDP — the broadest measure of the total value of goods and services produced in the country — is computed on 2004-05 base year.

India’s GDP at current market prices (2013-14) is valued at Rs 11,355,073 crore. Under the new series this could be at a higher value. The base year of the national accounts is changed periodically to factor in structural changes in the economy and present a more realistic picture of the macroeconomic aggregates.

The new series, which has been in the works for a couple of years, will include data on unorganised manufacturing and services and income from public private partnership (PPP) projects among others.

The data for corporate income will be collated from the corporate affairs ministry’s MCA21 records, a comprehensive compendium that allows collecting granular information even from the level of the small firms.

In the earlier series such data was taken primarily from the Reserve Bank of India’s study on company and finances.

The series will also incorporate results of recent national sample surveys such as those on enterprises, unemployment, debt and investment, situation assessment of farmers and survey of land livestock holdings, sources said.

The new series will be released for three consecutive years from 2011-12.

The National Statistical Commission has suggested that the base year for computing national account should be revised every five years.

The first official estimates of national income were prepared by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) with base year 1948-49 for the estimates at constant prices.