GDKP India, MoSPI Act One: History At A Click – OpEd

There is on the web a link that opens up a page of History. By clicking on MoSPI GDKP – the first index that aims to determine a nation’s knowledge production and distribution, complementing and correcting the traditional GDP – the reader will find himself examining a document of exceptional statistical importance: GDKP India first step.

MoSPI is moving at an accelerated pace toward calculating the India GDKP. Its secretary, Dr. Saurabh Garg, who has undertaken the commitment to modernizing the nation’s and state statistics, is moving at a brisk pace, highly unusual for large bureaucracies. His push was much more authoritative than MoSPI’s first slow motion, albeit meritorious, attempt in 2019. That failed due to basic structural errors in the composition of its team. On that occasion, the team consisted exclusively of statisticians, therefore their work lacked a reference model, which instead in this case, is explicitly cited by the MoSPI Secretary. Therefore, that work could not be completed. Now the Secretary of MoSPI acts instead with clearer ideas an it must be acknowledged that this time, compared to the first attempt, everything went smoothly.

FOUR INDIA SECTORS PRODUCING KNOWLEDGE

To start with, a highly significant result has been achieved. The first fundamental result in the construction of the India GDKP, can be seen by clicking on MoSPI GDKP. The document that will be consulted is of extraordinary importance within the India GDKP as it analyzes the four fundamental sectors of knowledge producers:

A. Private corporations; 

B. Non-departmental enterprises; 

C. General Government and Departmental Enterprise; 

D. Households.

It is crucial to study the document that MoSPI has made public because it constitutes the statistical underpinning of what is correctly laer developed in the Sulpasso model, the first GDKP model (the first also because he invented the concept itself of GDKP). 

This phase, of considerable technical complexity, was developed by the committee created by Secretary of MoSPI following the brainstorming on February 13th among operators he invited from all the major departments of the Indian economy. The very important brainstorming, in addition to officially credit the introduction of concept of GDKP to Prof. Sulpasso, this author, produced very ample material of basic reflections and it was followed by appointment of a special committee. The committee, composed of highly qualified statisticians, worked with speed and determination both promoted by the Secretary of MoSPI. 

The document, which requires careful study, provides data for the periods 2022-2023.

What is shown in the last table is a highly synthetic and analytical representation in RS Crore. Ratios and indices will provide a highly useful statistical basis for policymakers. It is very important that this document has been published because it will allow the government to make policy reflections of enormous operational importance. These are not developed in the document because MoSPI correctly provides the numerical elements for economic policy decisions, and the data it provides are highly relevant.

FROM STATISTICS TO A MODEL

But how can it be used to develop knowledge for the Indian economy?

Statistics do not in themselves provide the GDKP India: a model is needed that correlates seemingly distant factors not only of material production but also social and cultural values. It should be remembered that one of the major criticisms of GDP is precisely that it ignores immaterial and intangible factors. In reality, these criticisms miss a fundamental fact: GDP is the notion of a nation’s wealth that follows the industrial revolution. The strikingly new aspect of the mass industrial revolution is the production of material goods in quantities unthinkable in previous eras. It’s obvious that the GDP nations’ concept of wealth of nation reflected this phenomenon. But the Internet and AI have profoundly innovated the concept of knowledge, which has become Information, and India’s GDP model reflects this epochal historical shift.. And this is where the Sulpasso model comes in, cited by the MoSPI Secretary himself in the brainstorming minutes.

The end point of this model called GDKP INDIA Will and Representation,  is that the determination of the knowledge factor of the Indian economy and its various economic sectors depends on material as well as immaterial knowledge items. Those items must be initially recognized in terms of priced goods to arrive to a standard IS – international Standard- GDKP. And at this point we can evaluate the knowledge factor of India economy expressed in the ratio GDP/GDKP = K, a kind of Keynesian multiplier possible only if there is market consistency between GDP and GDKP. 

The original strength of the model in its first module (IS  Internatinal Standard – GDKP, will be followd by NDM -GDKP and MF- GDKP is that for the first time GDKP India  Wealth of Nation will include immaterial and intangible  factors. Just to mention some, Ethics, Aesthetics, Folklore, Religion, Entertainment, etc

It should be immediately noted that the model in question refers to all possible economies and must be adapted to each economy. This adaptation work to the Indian economy will hopefully be led by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, who has always expressed deep appreciation for Sulpasso’s GDKP India, and will provide important theoretical contributionsto the point that the model’s author himself rightly describes the final result as the GDKP of K&S (Kumar and Sulpasso). Why this explicit preference? 

Kumar is not only a top-level economist but for many years was Vice Chancellor of NITI Aayog, the key think tank whose chancellor is Modi. Therefore, to his notable theoretical quality, he adds a rare first hand thorough operational knowledge of the Indian economy’s core components. It can therefore be confidently anticipated that the K&S model will provide us wih a final representation of the GDKP India of the highest caliber, not only theoretically but operationally. 

THE GREAT PROMOTER OF GDKP INDIA

But how did MoSPI come to evoke this truly historic goal for India and for the general economic system? Because the term historical may not seem excessive, it should be remembered that the GDP in the late 1990s was considered the greatest evolution of economic theory of the century, and the GDKP constitutes in this century the first global measure of national wealth in terms of knowledge as information. 

And here for the revival  of MoSPI, a decisive factor must be remembered. A talented Indian journalist, Manoranjana Gupta, who fell in love with GDKP concept and gave on it an excellent conference for Cambridge University, deserves credit for reviving the project, which had ended up on MoSPI’s shelves. She took the fundamental steps to re-establish contact between Sulpasso, this author, and Rajiv Kumar. It’s safe to say that without her intervention, MoSPI would never have been activated. 

Having recognized this essential step it must be noticed that MoSPI deserves great credit for acting with a speed and determination quite unusual for large bureaucracies. This credit goes to its secretary, Dr. Saurabh Garg who, having taken on the task of modernizing national statistics and using them as a benchmark for state statistics, understood the independent role that the K factor must be given. His explicit reference to the Sulpasso model suggests that the K&S model will soon provide India and the world with GDKP a total new vision of Wealth of Nation and a powerful GDP corrective.

Meanwhile let’s make click on MoSPI GDKP. The new Indian vision of Wealth of Nation is coming on. History is at a click.