New Delhi, July 7 -- As India has embarked on a quest to become a global manufacturing powerhouse, with ambitious targets such as raising the share of manufacturing in gross domestic product (GDP) from about 17% currently to 25% by 2030 and creating 100 million jobs, tracking progress both accurately and in real-time is critical.

Yet, policymakers and analysts typically rely on lagging indicators.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has a lag of 42 days, which is being lowered to 28 days; quarterly GDP is reported with a two-month delay; and the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) is released about two years after the relevant financial year.

The real-time pulse of our industrial economy, however, lies not in delayed data and indice...