4/20/2020 The Top Indicators for India's Economy

ECONOMICS MACROECONOMICS

The Top Indicators for India's Economy

By SHOBHIT SETH | Updated Jun 25, 2019

India, a land of wonderful diversity and interesting opportunities, remains high on the list of
investment destinations by international investors and businesses. But what should one
look at before considering investing in India?

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With a lot of positives - a large, educated English speaking population, stable government in
the center, rising forex reserves, high value capital markets - India seems to be on a firm
growth path with the expectation of a double digit growth rate.

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However, regulatory inefficiencies, corruption, a slow growth rate over the last decade,
bureaucratic red tape in starting and running businesses, political pressures, and heavy
financial burdens due to subsidies, are some of the challenges facing India’s economy and
business environment.

Economic Indicators and associated parameters provide the important data points to enable
informed decision making. This article discusses the key sources to get the up to date
information about economic indicators of India. Let’s begin with government authorized
official sources of economic data for India.

EA data: Looking for official government data for Indian economy? The office of
Economic Adviser under Ministry of Commerce & Industry publishes detailed reports
covering all official economic numbers and figures for the nation. The homepage also
allows easy access to download historical data. The most up to date, regularly

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published Key Indicators Report covers all the latest statistics covering GDP, inflation,
agricultural production, employment, savings, investments, core industries growth,
export, import, government securities yield, monetary indicators, etc. applicable to the
Indian economy. The report is large and comprehensive with datasets split across 33
different data tables.
Planning Commission of India: Another official source of information on Indian
economic indicators, PCI offers more than 200 dedicated reports in PDF form, each
covering multiple datasets offering a wealth of information to the end user. The 200+
reports are available under the categories of
Indian Economy Related (national summary level reports)
Agriculture, Food Consumption & Poverty Related
Annual Plan of States (Province) Related
State-wise Indicators of Poverty & Per-capita Expenditure, Labour Force & Employment
Related
World Trade, Exports, Imports, FDI, Balance of Payments Related
Power, Energy and Irrigation Related
State Plans Related
Social Sector - Health & Family Welfare Related
Social Sector – Drinking Water & Education
World Economy & G-20 Countries Related
Census 2011 related
Demographic & Amenities data
Ministry of External Affairs: MEA also covers detailed reports and macroeconomic
indicators from the business perspective. The dedicated site India in Business provides
multiple detailed reports under different sections - Index of Industrial Production,
National Income, Index of Eight Core Industries, India's Foreign trade, Investment Trends,
Money and Banking, Capital Market and Consumer Market. Other sections include sector
wise (agriculture, real estate, etc.) economic analysis, and surveys and budget details.

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Along with official agencies, here are other sources for economic data on India.

Asian Development Bank: ADB provides its own coverage and estimates for datasets for
common economic indicators like GDP, inflation, current account deficit, etc. Based on
Asian Development Outlook estimates, it also regularly publishes a detailed report of a
country’s economy, offering useful insights from a neutral third party perspective.
Indexmundi: Indexmundi provides a quick reference for key economic indicators for
economies across the globe. Backed by a dedicated section on economy overview, the
site also offers comparison tool for relative performance analysis and study.
World Bank: WB offers economic data for all countries across the globe including India,
under its own unique categories - World Development Indicators, Global Economic
Prospects - Forecasts, Projects & Operations, Finances, Surveys and Climate. Available
with rich online interactive charts, graphs, and features with tools for comparative
analysis based on multiple parameters, WB also enables easy data download for offline
analysis. For e.g., the Projects category, among other details, covers the geographical
locations of the mentioned projects on an interactive map.

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EconomyWatch: For a quick snapshot, as well as a detailed history up to the year

1980, EW serves as a good source of information for economic indicators for India.

The Bottom Line

Indian economic indicators are available from numerous sources, including multiple
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government agencies, departments and ministries. Combined with the data from other
organizations, which maintain a politically-neutral stance, one has access to many tools to
assess the country and its economy fairly.

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