Chennai: Former RBI governor C Rangarajan questioned the credibility of government's data in an event attended by Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthi Subramanian on Wednesday.
"You talked about trust, trust in statistics, trust in numbers has become a question mark", he said while delivering a lecture at Madras School of Economics on Wednesday.
Speaking at the event, Krishnamurthi Subramanian emphasized his trust in the free market.
"Trust in the invisible hands of the market. It will create wealth and employment in the country", he said.
Rangarajan also said that the data related to a particular sector should be in accordance with what sectoral experts believe.
"People are not disputing the old methodology or new methodology, difference in methodology is not the answer".
On using MCA 21 data for GDP calculation
Rangarajan, who also worked as the Chairman to Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, has raised doubts about using corporate data for calculating national income.
"Using of MCA 21 data is valid. I have suggested it. But there is certainly a problem in using it. Corporate data is value but national income is real. MCA 21 data is not in the public domain and none of us can look at what's gone wrong".
He urged the government to look at data more carefully and said it is the duty of the government to clear doubts.
Rangarajan spoke at a time when economists raised apprehensions over recently released quarterly GDP growth figures.
Ministry of Statistics and programme implementation (MOSPI), in last December, constituted a 28-member standing committee chaired by the country's first chief statistician Pronab Sen to improve the quality of data.
