Currently, 2011–2012 is considered as the base year for the calculation of GDP.
As the Indian economy goes through drastic changes in recent years so the base year for GDP should change as well-feels the government. The NDA government just does not want to change the GDP base rate but also the base year for Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI), as per an announcement made on Thursday. For GDP and IIP the proposed base years are 2017–2018 and for CPI it will be 2018.
This declaration was made by the Union Minister of Statistics and Program Implementation, D V Sadananda Gowda when addressing a press meet. He went ahead to say that his ministry will be bringing in more changes in the way statistical reports are run and data is captured in India at present so that the information which is needed to check the current socio economic status of the country is available properly.
He also said that the service sector and the informal sectors at the economy are in need of different kinds of data these days and to fulfill this requirement, the Statistical and Program Implementation department is arranging for new kinds of surveys to address this kind of issue. One such survey will be the Time Use Survey which will reflect the contribution of Indian women in the arena of non-marketable socio-economic activities.
In April 2017 a new survey was launched, named as Labor Force Survey (PLFS) which captured the condition of Indian labor class. The results of this survey will be provided to both government and non-government bodies in the next fiscal year, 2018–2019. Gowda also informed that his ministry is involved in creating a National Data Warehouse which will contain all the essential official statistical data.