New Delhi, April 30 -- Ten years after India's last gross domestic product (GDP) series was released, the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi) has announced the release of a revamped series next year. The new series will replace one of the most contentious national accounts series in the country's history.

This is perhaps a good time to understand how and why India's current GDP series became so controversial. Immediately after the GDP series was released in early 2015 (with 2011-12 as its base year), economists and policymakers began questioning the accuracy of the numbers, as it seemed to contradict other economic indicators.

The controversy took a sharper turn when one of the experts involved in the revis...