History and Institutional Framework of National Income Estimation in India

Long before independence, individual scholars attempted rough estimates of India's income mainly to argue about the drain of wealth under colonial rule. Dadabhai Naoroji's late-nineteenth-century estimate was the earliest widely cited attempt, though it was necessarily approximate given the absence of systematic data. The first estimate generally regarded as scientific — based on an explicit method and stated assumptions — was made by Prof. V. K. R. V. Rao in the early 1930s, for the year 1931-32.

After independence, the Government of India set up the National Income Committee (1949), with P. C. Mahalanobis, D. R. Gadgil and V. K. R. V. Rao among its members, to place national income estimation on a regular, institutional footing. This led to the creation of the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), which for decades was the body responsible for compiling India's National Accounts Statistics.

In 2019, the CSO was merged with the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) to form the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which is the body currently responsible for releasing India's GDP, GVA and national income estimates. …