New Delhi, May 14 -- The proposed revamp of India's national accounts series has raised hopes that it will bring an end to the long-running controversy around India's gross domestic product (GDP) numbers. The initial signs are promising. Over the past year, the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi) has released pending surveys, and also engaged data users through a series of public seminars.

At a recent seminar held at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai, Mospi's national accounts division provided a broad overview of the changes we could expect to see in the new national accounts series. The most important change in the new series may be the manner in which informal sector gr...